Beneath the Five Oceans: Thirty Years of SCUBA Experience

Beneath the Five Oceans
Thirty Years of SCUBA Experience

Mikhail Vladimirovich Propp

™m

Translation of: V glubinakh piati okeanov
Leningrad : Gidrometeoizdat,

tridtsat'
ISBN:

1991. 255: 1p.

letpod vodoi. M.V. Propp.

5-286-00321-4. Copyright 1991 M.

V. Propp. Reprinted by permission of the author from an unpublished translation,
with image scanning and text editing by Peter Brueggeman,

retired Director of
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library of the UC San Diego Library.

Doctor of Science, Biology, Mikhail V. Propp is one of the pioneers of
underwater research in the USSR, and he has great experience in scuba diving in
the Arctic and Antarctic, off the Kuril Islands and the Great Barrier Reef.

This book about my personal experience in the formation and development of
underwater research in the vanished Soviet Union is, of course, a very Russian
book. At the same time alongside with the national and social specifics it
depicts a lot of things, characteristic of pioneers in general, and in a broader
sense, the frontier psychology - the underwater world has been a challenge to a
man and the very last frontier he could cross without any assistance from the
state or any other governing bodies, at his own risk penetrating the underwater
realm. Unlike in the West, money under "socialism" was of little importance
then, since everything was distributed by the state through different bodies and
institutions. The order, however strange it was, had its benefits, since one
could get accustomed to it, and get many of the necessary things and services
either free of charge or at a ridiculously small price. There was also a shadow
economy ready to offer assistance at any time for the corresponding fee.

One way or other, practically having no access to considerable funds and lacking
assistance from the central, very conservative Moscow organizations for a number
of years, I had an opportunity to develop scuba diving as I wished and thought
right. Only twenty years after, when public interest and concern about
underwater research got dampened, and official diving operations with its strict
rules and orders, borrowed from the military and extending into underwater
marine research, did my influence on divers around gradually came practically to
a halt. I continued to be respected as a living relic of the past, and enjoyed
freedom to dive.

I dived off all the continents and was the first to use scuba in three polar
seas - in the Barents Sea in 1959 (I cannot tell for sure if the Norwegians
started to dive in the West Barents Sea in the same years), and in two Antarctic
seas in 1965-1966. Yet, Russia lagged several years behind the rest of the
world. The chapter on tropical research is likely to be of little interest for
many readers, since they were well described in numerous books by the time we
got access to tropical waters. In Russia they say - you cannot drop a line from
a song; if I meant the book for a foreign reader, I would have written
differently. Still, I do believe it will find its reader as it is. I should also
apologize for the quality of translation, which in some places is obviously
awkward.

M. V. Propp

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1:
Chapter 2:
Chapter 3:
Chapter 4:
Chapter 5:
Chapter 6:
Chapter 7:
Chapter 8:
Chapter 9:
Chapter 10:
Chapter 11:
Chapter 12:
Chapter 13:

INTRODUCTION: page 4

FIRST STEPS: page 10

TO THE NORTH: page 19

PROFESSION-ECOLOGIST: page 27

THE SIXTH CONTINENT: page 40

DEEPER AND LONG

Tr.

ER: page 51

MORE SCIENCE: page 66

THE PACIFIC OCEAN: page 82

TROPICS: page 88

THE WORLD WITHOUT TH

USHISHIR, CRATI!

Gl
n

UN: page 109

EXPEDITION DISCOVERS THE ALI

EN WORLD: page 119

ER: page 127

CONCLUSION: page 137

To all those, who dived.

To all those,

To all those, who waited.

who never came back.

INTRODUCTION

Thousands of years ago, when primitive men approached the seashore for the first
time, they were sure to feel perplexed and horrified. Men's fear of water has
very deep roots - unlike many of the quadrupeds, monkeys, apes and people by
nature cannot swim. While in water they strive to get out, holding their heads
above surface, unless they choke and drown. The animals that move on four legs
swim in the same way they walk, and all of them, even the ones that avoid water
- like cats, - can swim from birth. There is no need to teach them to swim since
they can walk.

Man's fear of depth continues today. Eskimo people inhabiting the northern
coasts of America and Asia subsist on fish, seal and whales. By a single
skillful move an Eskimo could bring on an even keel the overturned kayak - a
tiny skin boat. But none of them could swim, and more than that, a person fallen
to the sea was considered to be lost. Even if he managed to get out, his fellow-
tribesmen killed him; he was no longer a man but some evil spirit that imbued
the body of the dead, since no man could get out of the water alive. Really,
even the best of swimmers are unable to endure a few minutes in the icy cold
water of the Arctic, and death by hypothermia is inevitable. In the areas wher
water is not so cold, fear of sea has never been so absolute.

No doubt, population of the sea coasts with their abundant and easily accessible
food resources started in early prehistoric times. On the North American coasts
the first European colonists met Indian tribes that fed on mollusks, digging
them out of sand with long sticks. On the southern extremity of the American

a

hemisphere, on the gloomy shores of Terra del Fuego, the natives subsisted on
what they could find at a narrow tidal strip, while their women dived in ice
cold water to gather mussels.

Nevertheless, there are several reasons that delayed man's penetration into the
underwater realm for millenniums. There is no oxygen under water to breathe,
man's eye can distinguish little unless there is a glass and air layer before
it, and hands and legs are poorly designed for movement through water. There is
a legend, hardly true, that Alexander the Macedonian submerged in a glass
submersible. Through its walls he would have been able to s the underwater
life, but even the best divers of ancient and medieval times, although able to
dive at reasonably large depth and stay under water for a long time holding
their breath could see almost nothing and had to move to the touch. From ancient
times the stories about the constructed diving bells reached us, and from a
technical point of view there is nothing impossible in that. Nevertheless, all
these stories exist now only in the rendering from medieval centuries, and there
is little certainty whether some of the projects were realized in ancient Rome,
or whether only brave conjectures of scientists are in question.

he situation changed in medieval Europe when seafaring flourished. Ships sunk
requently right in harbors with all their cargoes of priceless treasures
rought from distant locations, and not less valuable bronze cannons. Kings,
surers, bankers and other rich men spared no expense to rescue their wealth.
here were lots of adventurers ready to risk their lives, and scientists who
ried to design a submersible vehicle. Many of the sunken treasures were raised
rom the bottom of the sea soon after the wrecks, although sometimes divers
worked in conditions that are considered to be difficult even for modern
advanced technology.

hot He OM

On August 10, 1628, the "Vasa", a famous Swedish man-of-war, sank within an hour
of her launching in Stockholm harbor. She sank at a depth of 30 meters,

considered
water,
King's orde

to be a great dep

Swiss scientis

— 7

th in those times particularly in cold and
and was absolutely inaccessible for free divers.
ts had constructed a diving bell and with g
difficulties managed to rescue almost all of the bronze cannons. After

reat
that

turbid
In 30 years upon the

the

frigate's hull was lost for more than 300 years and rediscovered again in 1956.

Advanced modern gear was used to lift it,

is hard for us
- for instance,
kets and hoses we

Sometimes i
those times
all the gas
tarpaulin.

In the early nineteenth century, the
to a helmet. This gear turned out to
diving for more than 120 years, just

equipment. A diver in this suit can stay under water for a long
But he moves slowly and awkwardly,
to the ship with a hose and usually with a lin

out different complicated jobs.

with the wo

absolutely unknown,
treated leather and

rk lasting for five years.
to evaluate the difficulties and achievemen
seals made of rubber were
re made out of specially

ts of
and

air pump was improved, and
be such a success that it was used for
recently being ousted by mo

as well, h ds several

n

tenders,
a diver meant the use of ven

mainly a small diving bell on the

with an air pump at the surface, div

professionals whom one could admire and envy,
devoting all of one’s life to the purs
known French biologist Alphonse Milne-Edwa
the assistance of several Greek divers.

researched Gullmar Fjord,

ba
Ca
wi

thysphere in a kilometer of depth.

ribbean Sea,
thout a suit. Later h

Ww

wrot

the warm and transparent wa
Dear reader.

rs represented a rather small group of
but never belong to unless
uit of diving. As early as 1844,

In the 1920s,
ry enthusiastic diver was the
became famous for diving ina
da helmet to study fishes of
ters of which allowed one to dive

who

He us

diving equipment and at least once in your life have a look under the sea

surface, there is nothing that could
Yet, in spite of some exceptions,
circle of professionals and scientis
books, and films about the sea benea
majority of people had nothing to do

eyes of experts. By late 1930s,

reduced a diving helmet to a mask covering th

rubber fins. This made the underwat
This gear was soon completed with an
and stay under water for several hou

In several years,
enthusiasts of diving
unheard-of enthusiasm.
first time used SCUBA

Buy, lend, if you can't - s

be compared to a coral reef under wa

diving remained a prerogative of a narrow

t until new equipment was invented. S
th the surface were popular,

with it and could see it only through

CO

enthusiasts from the Mediterranean Sea coast
and invented

nose and eyes only,
r world more accessible at shallow wate
oxygen rebreather,

rs, but was rather dangerous in use.

stirring a wave of

the bell reduced

re sophisticated
time carrying
he is bound

and he is subject to danger while descending and ascending. When being
tilated gear,

head

a well-
rds dived in helmet near Corsica with
a Swiss Torsten Gislén
and his diving method can be regarded as a model even
according to today's standards. Another ve
prominent ichthyologist William Beebe,
the

teal

ries,

but the great

the

rs.

allowing one to breathe

books and films by Jacques Yves Cousteau and some other early
became known all over the world,
Was that due to the fact that Cousteau's team for the
designed by Emile Gagnan? It is likely to be one of

several reasons - the idea was not a new on The same patents have been known
since the second half of nineteenth century, with the original being a technical
treatment alone. The combining of three elements: a mask, fins and rather cheap,
reliable and safe breathing apparatus turned out to be a crucial thing. Having

gotten rid of a hose and lines connecting a diver to the surface,
aman may seem

of a necessity to have tenders,
freedom of fish. The significance of

such events as research in the Arctic and Anta
aviation - it was a time when the first genera

appeared, the Earth seemed to reduce

finally to have acquired the

the inven

tion of jet passenger airc

in size, and distances became shorter.

and gotten rid

tion stands in the same line with
rctic and the brisk development of
rafts

One of the reasons for
accessibility - after s

or construct scuba equipment and start diving. Different people pu

different goals in thei
scientific research was

r yearning to penet

rate th

each individual. A desi
stimulators of human activity;

were already known to p
for more than a century,

lf to humanity,

up deep emotions and de
ups.

that

and what

the immense popularity of diving was its relative
veral lessons one could purchase at a reasonable price

rsued

underwater world and

not always the main or only objective. An immense world
full of mysteries and wonders revealed its
re to discover some
it can stir
behavior of both individuals and large gro
rofessionals,

is more - to

thing new is among the most powerful

termine the

The fact that many of its wonders
the sea had been an object of study
was of little importance to the enthusias

CS.

Almost nobody among the pioneers of diving were professional divers or

scientists. Everything began from a zero point. Who wer
devoted all their lives to diving, or several years,
dreamers, idealists, adventurers,

thos

who

aim, or had their aim alr
the question. In a course
for others diving was but
contributed to the discov

ady b
of years some of them became professional researchers;
an episode.
ries mad

n

reached? No definite answer can

Those who dived in the 1950s
under the sea surface,

are no mysteries left, at
enthusiasm to penetrate th

least the ones
underwater r

traces in the history of science and man
known to divers and scientists although from different angles,
t from books,
inaccessibility and maybe some of its at
ty around men.

everyone knows about i

become a part of reali
Russia has
several kinds of

in diving. Before
field research on
obtained were kep

the industry star

rathe

ret.

tC SEC

were too heavy,

In late 1956 in Moscow and Leningrad,
widescreen films - was demonstrated. Among o

the old traditions of underwa

kind. The underwater world

films, and TV. Deprived of its

tractiveness,

ter research. In pre-World

r good oxygen rebreathers wer
and during World War Two,
the underwater physiology of mixed gas diving,

ted to produce the fi
only as a means to train in swimming.

made it rather easy to get high pressu
years previously would have been rathe
and aluminum alloys we

"Twenty Minutes Under Water," depicting scuba dive
. This film a
the first documentary reel about the underwate
and then a film releas
gained an immense popularity

seaweed, and sea stars
was
the World of Silence"
Bruno Vailati,

xperienced befor
were not very much separated in
of people. Lack of diving gear
enthusiasm.
less skilled engineer.
already been used in aviation,
fill scuba tanks. Nevertheless,
rebreathers. These oxygen rebr

sponges,

SCUBA is rather simpl
It was mo

and

developed and

re seldom used.

the latest novelty of cinema

thers

peopl
or several months -
or fanatics? Did they pursue an unattainable

but
In 1955-56 on the eve of the postwar Olympic Games,
rst specimen of fins that were
The development of metallurgy and aviation
re compressors and light tanks
r difficult to construct since steel tanks

be given to

1960s

and nowadays there
that are close to the surface.
alm is in the past, but it left its

Mass

had been

while nowadays

the underwater world has

War II years,
widely used

academician Leon A. Orbeli conducted

the results

regarded

that twenty

technique -

there was one film titled

ttracted no attention,

d lat the "Blu

v,

experience could not s

re
and
in
ath

utilization was possible only when

experience by following all the

r world. A Cousteau film
Continent" by
that documentary cinema never

In several months underwater travel and sport diving that
those early days thrilled hundreds and thousands
top the wave of

rs in the Mediterranean Sea,

although it
AY Tey

to be designed and constructed by a more or

difficult to make a compressor,
a discarded plane comp

the first years, many used

strict rules were obs

but they had

ressor could be used to
oxygen
rs did not require a compressor,

rved. Those who gained
rules acquired enough practice in the long run,

but their

but many who ignored them never returned from their dives. By 1960 the use of
rebreathers was practically stopped; experience showed that they wer xtremely
difficult to ensure a diver's safety.

Science enthusiasts - marine zoologists, biologists, geologists, and
archaeologists, placed great hopes on new methods to penetrate the underwater
world. Hordes of amateurs longed to look under the sea surface. The first though
not numerous groups of divers with masks, fins and diving gear appeared on the
shores of the Black Sea in 1957. In winter 1957-58 at the marine clubs of the
Voluntary Societies of Assistance to the Army, Navy and Air Forces of Moscow and
Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), the training of instructors for unprofessional
diving was organized. The programs trained oxygen rebreather divers preparing to
work at rescue stations. There were no domestic made scuba tanks yet, and it was
unclear whether oxygen rebreathers supported swimming underwater, as it was
designed for divers with heavy loads who worked underwater in a vertical
position. Later the first masks and scuba tanks were manufactured and in summer
1958 several expeditions worked on the Black Sea coast. Almost all of them
employed all sorts of self-made improvements, and the quality of diving
equipment left much to be desired.

The geographic area of diving enthusiast activity in the first years was limited
to the Black Sea alone, where it seemed one could dive in summer without a
diving suit. In reality, nevertheless, suits were necessary almost everywhere.
In many respects the Black Sea resembles the Mediterranean (although the marine
life here is less diverse), from where scuba diving started. The warmest and
calmest of all Russian seas, the Black Sea in years to come preserved its role
as a ground for conducting research and tests. At the same time it becam
obvious that it was necessary to explore all the seas surrounding the country,
although diving conditions in them were much more complicated. In the early
1960s brisk research of the Northern seas as well as the Japanese, Caspian, and
Aral Seas began. The first expeditions were mainly from Moscow and St.
Petersburg; later on the most powerful center of underwater research was formed
in Ukraine. Research groups were established at the Barents and the White Seas,
as well as in the Far East Pacific seas.

By now the Russian researchers of the world ocean have achieved great results.
Studied was the ice cover of the Arctic Ocean, sea animals and plants of
Antarctic, coasts and islands of the Southern seas, coral reefs and coastal
waters of the tropical seas, and craters of active volcanoes. The results
obtained late 1950s - 1960s seem primitive, even obsolete now. Nevertheless that
was the time when the foundation was laid and the path to follow determined,
personnel trained, and experience gained. Everything that made it possible in
the years to come was put forward and the tasks to use for research diving were
resolved, in studying polar latitudes and many other things. The times when new,
undiscovered, pristine worlds, continents, and islands appeared before
researchers now belong to history.

Nowadays a scientist seldom discovers anything in the traditional sense of
discovery, i.e. faces something absolutely unknown of which the novelty and
originality is obvious at first glance. If, for example, a biologist discovers
some new species, it should not be understood so as the newness is clearly seen.
As a rule there exists only some possibility that should be either confirmed, or
rejected by the scientists, who are experts in some separate classes and kinds
of animals having access to different collections. The discovery of a new
species might take years. The situation in experimental sciences is even mor
complicated. The results of the experiment usually became clear after the

statistical treatment. Very often different interpretations are admitted that
may cause objections and a need for repeated tests.

Does that mean that an immediate discovery itself has no place in modern
science? To ascertain that would be premature. In research there is always a
place for the unexpected, particularly in research of such natural phenomenon as
the ocean. On the pages of this book the discovery of deep-water oases
hydrothermal vents, is mentioned. This gave impetus to the searches for unusual
manifestations of life in the areas of volcanic activity in shallow waters, and
these searches turned out to be a success. But this is a rare exception. It is
very common: a scientist discovers something new, but understanding of the
originality of his discovery is obvious only to some of his colleagues and very
often is of purely local importance. In academic approach, ocean resources and
the possibilities to discover something new are inexhaustible, since new

problems appea

The image of a
literature. Bu
another withou
in reality. Ve

r more rapidly

true scientis

than their

t any difficul
ry often years

solutions are fo

t differs considerably from
rning with inspiration and genius,
ties and mistakes does not correspond to what it is
pass in monotonous labor wi

followi

und.

that depicted in
ng from one discovery to

thout any achievements,

and sometimes it happens that after years of work the them ither expires
itself, or someon lse takes the leadership. In this case it is hard to
estimate whether the results obtained paid back or whether it was a deadlock
way.

The euphoria of the first years when great hopes were placed on diving has
passed completely by now. In a great number of sciences such methods of research
re auxiliary. Man underwater - even in the best gear, is but a visitor, his
bility to carry out work is very limited and related not only to the quality of
iving equipment, but some technical and scientific skills, and special

raining. The underwater realm has lost its charm of novelty and attracts few
ople unless they work in it or study it. For the professionals it is in the
irst place a job like any other. The underwater world is beautiful, but a
rofessional usually works in turbid water, over a flat sand or silty bottom
where only a specialist can see anything at all. A person whose job is
underwater can feel satisfied at the thought that he was able to overcome the
difficulties, carry out hard and sometimes dangerous work, but seldom he
realizes himself as a pioneer or feels deep emotions while underwater.

Tw Mh'd tag wo

For more than thirty years of diving the author faced different situations, and
dived at the shores of all the continents and in all the oceans. These
expeditions and works cannot be regarded as something prominent concerning
achievement or hardship - this was ordinary research according to the standards
of that time. In this book the author has his objective the task to convey the
spirit of the epoch when the underwater world just started to reveal itself to
the pioneers of underwater research, but he does not aim to follow its history.
It is not yet written, but one can get some impression about it from the books

published in those years, many of which, unfortunately, became a rarity.

Underwater research was and still is a collective activity; one cannot readily
conduct it alone. None of my work would have been possible without the
cooperation and generosity of my friends and colleagues, and without them this
book would have never been written. A feeling of unanimity among the people who
risked their lives for the cause of common deed is deeper than any other
emotions, - together we lived, worked, and dived. I cannot take the liberty of
describing that particular feeling, but cannot but mention it. Those ones who

dived or climbed will understand what I mean. One either can or cannot be a

diver or a mountaineer; there is no middle ground. Underwater research,
nevertheless, is not an isolated activity, its objectives changed as it
developed, and gradually it became just one of the means to supply the
laboratories with material. Some special issues of marine science are touched
upon in this book to such a degree as is necessary to understand the way of our
research.

The pictures used are made mainly by the author and also by V. Vakhranev, S.
Rybakov, and N. Ivanov. [PB: For this translated edition, pictures from the book
that are human-oriented featuring people, divers and diving operations, etc. are
incorporated. Pictures featuring animals, nature, scenery, etc. are not
incorporated.] The author expresses his deep gratitude to experts who helped him
to classify the animals, mainly the researchers for the Institute of Marine
Biology, Far Eastern Branch of the USSR Academy of Science, Vladivostok and
Zoological Institute in Saint Petersburg, - Yu. Latypov (corals with lime
skeleton), A. Maliutin (soft corals), O. Kusakin (invertebrates), V. Levin
(echinodermata), A. Sakharov (tropical fishes), V. Shuntov (the Kurils Islands
fishes), S. Chaplygina and S. Grebelnoi (hydroids and coelenterate).

FIRST STEPS

As a child I felt a strong yearning to glance underwater, and out of a gas mask,
several inflated balls and a tap, I made a sort of a diving apparatus and put my
head under the surface of a small lake near Leningrad. In 1956 I was a chemistry
student at Leningrad University. Classes, student activities, and sport swimming
took all my time and left little hope that someday I would repeat my childhood's
experience. But late 1956 in the "Velikan" cinema hall, I saw a French
widescreen film "Twenty Minutes Under Water", and a yearning to see the
underwater world with my own eyes became my goal. Nothing is inaccessible when
you are young and full of enthusiasm. By summer 1957, all the basic problems

were settled. The most important thing was to find the advocates.

A young lecturer at the Refrigerator Institute, Yuri Kuzin, was elected as head
of our small expedition that comprised two of my fellow students: Tolia Zosin
with whom I trained in a swimming pool, and Dima Korolkov. Kuzin and I graduated
from a professional diving school with a certificate of junior diver and a right
to dive using hose helmet gear and oxygen apparatus. There were some vagu

rumors about SCUBA but nobody knew anything definite. We decided to use oxygen
diving gear. Somewhere Kuzin got the components of discarded oxygen equipment;
out of them I, being a chief technician, collected seven units apt for use. We
made masks, bought fins, filled a large rubber bag with carbon dioxide
absorbent, and several tanks with oxygen. And here we were, in a train to
Feodosia, where we were to meet a group of archaeologists who could not help us
with money but directed us to a number of sites where we hoped to discover the
ruins of ancient ports and sunken ships. Our plans were grandiose, although we
were yet to see the sea for the first time in our lives. Soon we arrived at
Koktebel. In summer 1957 the Crimea's beaches were nearly deserted, with the
tourist boom several years ahead. The country more or less repaired the damage
inflicted by the war, but people did not yet travel much.

Our first diving ... The sun was hot, water - warm and transparent. We were
beside ourselves with joy. The most breathtaking film adventures fade when you
s the underwater world with your own eyes: kelp forests, crabs, colored fish,
and mussels in their own element - everything excited us. In my heart, every
time I dived I expected that something strikingly unusual, something beyond
human imagination would happen. Alas, this was never realized; the reality if
measured by the present day standards was more than modest.

But at that time marine wildlife was still pristine. Although fish in the Black
Sea were less diverse than in the Mediterranean Sea, to say nothing of coral
reefs, they were absolutely not afraid of man. One could come very close to
scrutinize fish, almost touch. In the next year, 1958, a well-known English
writer, James Aldridge, one of the pioneers of underwater hunting, came to the
Black Sea especially to s the fearless grey mullet. Crabs, some being very
large (there are no crabs that size now), were not afraid of us as well. In the
first post-war years, a large gastropod mollusk - Rapana shell - got to the
Black Sea from the Far East. The number of these most beautiful predators
reached its peak in the 1950s, when Rapanas were met everywher

We spent a fortnight diving when some tiredness began to tell, partially related
to over cooling in water. We did not have any difficulties while diving since we
were rather well trained as sport swimmers. While in water we felt no fear or
tension and could dive without breathing apparatus at a depth of 20 meters.
Unfortunately, we failed to understand that in these achievements of ours, there
were the portents of our future failures. We thought that there was nothing
unattainable for us, and ignored nutrition, rest and diving regime - it was nice
to realize that you are in good shape and there are no limits to your
capabilities.

In Koktebel we found nothing worth interest but a few sea-rolled crocks, and
decided to shift our expedition to Novyi Svet. This site is one of the most
beautiful in the Crimea, and before the war they happened to find on the shores
the ancient amphorae. Having looked around the site that in beauty of scenery
yielded nothing to Koktebel we started to dive in search of archaeological
artifacts of which ceramics were best preserved. We had to dive at a very great
distance from the shore since a flat bottom 12-18 meters deep - marginal for our
equipment - was several hundred meters off the shore line. We had no boat and
had to swim to our diving place using inflated bags of our oxygen rebreathers as
safety belts. (If all the taps and valves are properly closed an eight-liter bag
keeps a man afloat.) The place from where we dived was rather far from where we
lived. Every time we walked a long distance carrying all our heavy gear, and
after that we swam several hundred meters to the diving place. Physical load
increased considerably, tiredness aggravated.

In a few days we found the first broken amphora, then detached pieces and
fragments of pottery, and enameled cups. The most difficult thing was to orient
ourselves both under water and on the surface; very often we failed to get to
that very place where something interesting was found. Y. Kuzin telephoned th
Simpheropol [Simferopol] Archaeological Institute, they promised to send an
archaeologist and local newspaper correspondent to see our finds. They also had
to help us with a boat and to put the places on the map.

So far we kept on diving and thanks to our boundless enthusiasm increased the
duration of diving to marginal limits admissible for oxygen equipment. Some
technical problem appeared. A diver who uses a rebreather inhales oxygen from a
rubber bag and exhales carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is removed by a special
absorbent with soda lime in its composition, and additional oxygen supplied from
a tank. When a diver comes to the surface gas both in bag and lungs expands.
Even inconsiderable ease of pressure corresponding to a raise by 2-3 meters may
cause lung over inflation and rupture, so-called lung barotrauma - one of the
most serious illness of divers. To release th xpanded gas a bag is provided
with a release valve. In our ISAM-48 apparatuses a valve had a hand-closed
screw, closed when a diver in water turns his back down in order not to release
oxygen at pressure difference to the water.

We have noticed that despite all our precautions and pressurization tests some
water penetrates our apparatuses and the absorbent gets damp. If the absorbent
becomes wet during diving it still works, but on the surface a crust covers the
granules, their activity greatly reduced. Diving with such an absorbent may
cause carbon dioxide poisoning. If the absorbent hardly works carbon dioxide
accumulates ina bag very rapidly and a diver may lose consciousness in 2-3
minutes without noticing it. This happened to Dima Korolkov. Fortunately he was
attached to a line and we took him to the surface immediately, there were no any
grave consequences.

Soon we found out that release valves leak in water, since the gear was designed
to work in vertical position, when rubber tabs are contracted by pressure
difference. But if a diver swims horizontally contracting forces disappear anda
valve leaks. Tolia Zosin suggested to close the valve before diving and to open
it just before ascending, but I considered it to be rather dangerous, since one
can't always rely on his memory underwater. The accord was not reached, and
everybody did as he considered right. Everything could have been all right but
for the exhaustion that accumulated gradually: a possibility of mistake
increased.

For several days we worked as usual at a distance of about 400 meters from the
shore trying to find new amphorae and their fragments and really found them from
time to time. Strange it may seem, they were of different types and size and
belonged to different epochs separated by centuries. We discovered nothing that
could remind of a sunken ship and gradually arrived to a conclusion that these
are not traces of a wreck, but broken pottery tossed overboard for centuries at
the times when Novyi Svet was a port city. The fragments themselves were not of
real archaeological value, in large quantities they were found at land
excavations. We tried to find some traces that could help us to understand the
past and explain the origin of these diverse pieces of pottery.

6
a
2 =
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zO
of
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a
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eo
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TO. H. Kysun c name nepsoi amopoi.

Usually we dived thr times a day and stayed under water for 25-30 minutes
during each dive. This happened during the third and final dive of a day. Tolia
and me - Kuzin had his rest after diving, Korolkov was on duty and made dinner -
reached our diving place, opened the valves of our tanks and went to the bottom
in 15-16 meters of water. For a long time we stayed in transparent blue water
orienting ourselves to our surroundings and the sun that struggled through the
water thickness. The sand bottom was deserted but for occasional rocks and
fragments of pottery that we ignored - we had enough of that stuff.

Thirty minutes passed - maximum time one can stay at that depth without risking
acute oxygen poisoning. We exchanged "lift" signal - oxygen was coming to an end
- and went to the surface. Head above water I turned to see the shore, looked
around in search of Tolia and saw him nowhere. Then I suddenly saw his head

above water several meters away; Zosin was in a helmet and did not move.
Horrified I approached him; he remained motionless and only a bag inflated
during an ascent kept him afloat. I tore the helmet off him; his eyes were open,
but he was unconscious. I gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. A yellowish
foam went out of his mouth. He breathed and suddenly started to kick his legs
and arms on the water. We both went to the bottom, and water closed above us.

By some great effort I managed to push him and myself back up and took several
deep breaths. The shore was approximately 400 meters away and it seemed as far
as another continent. I pulled a lifeless body for several meters until again we
went down through the layers of blue water where reflected sunbeams played. The
sea so beautiful and so indifferent to what was going on with us. Once more I
managed to get to the surface and immediately we started to drown. "We can't

We simply can't drown here. Not we ..." Thoughts beat in my head, pink circles
danced before th yes, I made efforts to understand what was wrong. "It must
not be that way, oxygen apparatus holds a swimmer on the surface like a life
belt, so either mouthpiece taps or release valves are open and gas leaks."
Holding Tolia's head above water I started to poke about my gear and soon
discovered that in a haste I forgot to close the release valve. Turning on the
cover I pressed the by-pass button. The pressure in the tank was low, gas hardly
hissed, but finally the eight-liter bag was inflated. I examined Zosin's
apparatus. Taking the helmet off him I hadn't close the mouthpiece tap. In the
same way I inflated his bag. Under no circumstances we could drown now.

I pulled Tolia to the shore and from time to time I cried and waved my hands,
but Kuzin was too far away to hear. Sometimes unconscious Zosin began to kick
his arms and legs trying to swim, yellow bubble escaped his mouth. We approached
the shore unbearably slowly.

Finally, Kuzin heard the cries, helped to pull Tolia and took the gear off him.
Under barotrauma of the lungs, gas bubbles might block blood vessels in
different organs, including brain and result in grave consequences. The suffered
had to be placed in a high pressure chamber. The nearest was in Sevastopol, and
that was as far is the Moon. Tolia was unconscious, foam on his lips.
Fortunately, in three of our apparatuses there were some oxygen left. We laid
Zosin face down, switched on the apparatuses to open circulation and put a
mouthpiece into his mouth. In 2-3 minutes his breath stabilized, pulse steadied,
Tolia regained his senses. But as soon as oxygen in the apparatus came to an
end, he lost consciousness again.

There was no doctor in the village and we faced a very difficult choice: either
to help him with our own forces, or to transport him through all the Crimea
risking his life. Although there was no paralysis or any other particularly
dangerous symptoms, Zosin's condition was very poor, he was half conscious,
respiration and pulse quickened. Later I got to know that barotraumas are

ndured easier if oxygen is inhaled, since gas bubbles are absorbed by the
tissues. Luckily, we just recharged all the cylinders. We put the apparatus near
Tolia so he could use it whenever he felt bad. Every time oxygen inhalation
brought instant relief, but it lasted as long as he breathed in gas. We all had
a sleepless night, and by next morning Tolia was out of danger, only later on he
could not remember that day.

An accident with Tolia, although ended well - in two months medical examination
revealed no breach in his health, - showed all the difficulties and risks we
faced. Yet, we did not give up diving, although the aggravating exhaustion and
sense of danger dampened our enthusiasm.

In years to follow underwater pursuits in Novyi Svet were continued by other
groups. Better preserved and rarer amphorae were found, but nothing principally
new was discovered.

Baarojapa HOBbIM CAMORCABHBIM allapaTaM MpOLOAMUTeENLHOCTL CHYCKOB YBCAHUHNACh, HO OHH HE CTaH MeHee OnacHBIMH.
1958 roa.

The situation changed drastically next summer. In 1957 in two months’ time we
had met on the Black Sea coast only three amateur divers - two with self-made
masks, and a lucky one with Italian mask, snorkel and fins. In winter 1957-58,
hundreds and thousands of people became divers. We continued our work without
Kuzin, who through the diving section of his Institute managed to get a large
boat that required repair, and decided to boat in it on the Volga and through
the channels to the Black Sea. We were not interested in that since too little
time would be left for diving. With certificates of divers, somehow improved
equipment, including diving suits, and cameras we went to Novyi Svet again. A
student of Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute Zhenia Zeiger and Tolia Zosin's
younger brother Lionia joined our expedition.

We had to use oxygen gear again - there was no time and forces to make scuba and
a compressor. We could dive in the Black Sea using th quipment we had, but we
ran more grave risks as the number of divers and diving increased. Frequently we
met groups with scuba, usually self-made, but the expedition of Moscow

University was equipped with the apparatuses of the well-known Draeger Company.

Relationships in those times were rather casual, allowing us to test different
types of scuba. Before that only once did we dive with scuba, and that was with
the Marine Club in Leningrad in 1958. The advantages of scuba over oxygen
equipment - reliability, simplicity, safety - were obvious. We had met a large

amateur expedition among the members of which were Slava Stepanov and Oleg

Serov. Their engineer skills and the capacities of the plant where they worked
allowed them to design and construct very decent gear: their compressor, scuba,
masks, and fins were of better quality that the ones produced by the industry.
Good gear allowed them to dive deeper and stay under water longer, than it was

possible in our rebreathers.

The most important thing was, of course, safety.

The season brought no particular discoveries, the area was better studied,
pottery collected, a short film shot. This time we did without accidents, but
some minor troubles like carbon dioxide poisoning still happened.

The expedition completed, report written and handed in to the archaeologists,

the question arose: what next? We were rather experienced divers since oxygen
equipment makes you think while you are under water. But now better equipped
expeditions worked on the Black Sea coast, besides, underwater archaeology did
not appeal to us. To undertake it, it is necessary first of all to be an

archaeologist, to have a well
The Crimean archaeologists co

provided technical base and lots of other things.
uld hardly help us since divers became so numerous

that it was necessary first of all to control this spontaneous activity so that
unique underwater artifacts were not damaged by amateurish excavation. In

general we had an impression
prospects. It is desalinated,

that the Black Sea did not promise us any bright
plants and animals are not so numerous and diverse

here as in the other seas, the flood of divers and holiday-makers increased from

year to year and we simply go
abundant in marine life, with
were not far from Leningrad.

cv tT

t lost in it. We wanted to s the other seas
deep waters. Such seas - the Barents and the White

TO THE NORTH

They started to research these northern seas as early as the second half of the

late ninet

last century. In th
were set up there. Th
but nobody yet dived ther

incomparably more severe than in the Black Sea:
that cause strong and unpredictable currents,
fauna of the Barents Sea is more diverse

nth century a number of biological
research of these seas had its history and achievements,
using SCUBA. The diving conditions in the North are

stations

cold deep waters, high tides
inhospitable climate. Flora and
and rich than that of the Black Sea.

The White Sea was not so rich and thus little attracted us.

Our task was very complicated. We had to replace th
make new cold-proof diving suits and lots of other things.

students and our capabilities wer

rather limited.
volunteers for our expedition - at that time peopl

oxygen gear with scuba, to
Yet, we were just

Zosin and I failed to recruit
preferred to spend their

vacations on the Black Sea coast and the idea to have a vacation in the North

sounded ridiculous.
Kola Peninsula coast.
mosquitoes.
better. Through

Murmansk Hydrometeorological Observatory on
A response was categorical:

Barents Sea.

I myself had a very vague idea about the conditions
In my imagination tundra was a vast flat marsh ab
Zosin born in Monchegorsk near Murmansk knew the Kola Peninsula
the administration of the Marine Club we made an inquiry at

on the
undant in

the possibility to dive in the

"Diving in the Barents Sea is

impossible due to large quantity of sharks and killer whales." Getting ahead of

my story I say that having worked for more
thousand times near the Murmansk coast,
likely that even in winter when sharks come near
a depth attainable for a diver.
whale fin only once from a great distance.

than
saw a Great
the shore,

Polar shark. It is
they never appear at

than thirteen years and dived more
neither I nor my team divers ever

We saw a killer

Having got such a response the Marine Club administration refused us any

assistance.
people wer

diving school had not only golden hands but brains.
for himself and agreed to make one more for us.
Vasiliev considered that time has not yet come to

Fortunately, our club-fellows attitude was different.
very gifted. One of them Victor Iogansen whom I first met at the

Many of those

He was making a compressor
Medical Institute student Tolia

xplore the Barents Sea, but

to dive in lakes near Leningrad he developed rather simple technology to produce

diving suits out of thin rubber.

A design of self-made scuba was worked out
apparatuses were completed. Unfortunately
1959 and we ourselves had made two rathe
mining respirators of 1936 - a museum ra
good quality. Our friends helped us a lo

was prepared.

At that time interest in diving was grea
I was invited at the Insti

great demand.

We could

use that.

in the Club; later on twenty

they failed to produce them by summer
r decent scuba using close-circuit
rity, discarded long ago, but of rather

t and by summer our minimal expedition

t and trainers and instructors were in

tute of Cytology of Academy to deliver

course of lectures on scuba diving and to conduct several training lessons but

without diving since the only one in Leningrad,
others were self-made and not approved for

Marine Club; all

There I met Aleksei V. Ph.

Zhirmunski,

of Science,
at the Institute and great enthusiast of th
asked us to deliver

a scuba ABM-1, belonged to the
any official diving.

Biology,
underwater res

scientific secretary
arch. After hearing
120 liters of

that we are going to the Barents Sea h

seawater to study sea animals. We were paid forty rubles each which was very

fortunate,

and were assigned to Dalnie Zelentsy.

In the very last hours left

before the departure we still soldered and packed our equipment, scuba,
compressor, suits, and boxes for cameras.

The train took us to Murmansk, where we changed to a very old "Derzhavin" ship
that once a week headed for its voyage along the coast. A trip to Zelenetskaia
or Dalnie Bay took a day. In the mid-1930s, the Academy of Science established a
biological station there, shortly before our arrival reorganized to the Murmansk
Marine Biological Institute.

The very first hours in Kola Bay struck me; Zosin happened to be here before. I
imagined the North as a dull plain, but instead saw high precipitous dark and
red rocks that steeped into the sea, streams running down the slopes. The sun
shone brightly, streams glittered, tundra criss-crossed in all colors. Sea birds
flushed by the ship ran on water surface a long time before to they took off,
dolphins and seals played in water around the ship. Seaweed forests were seen in
the transparent water. There was nothing of the leisure beauty of the Crimea,
but the Northern nature impressed.

The sun never set, we spent all the night on deck. The Derzhavin entered a
narrow Iarnyshnaia Bay, we transferred to dory - a small Pomor boat that took us
to a shaky wooden moorage whose piles were covered with long and thick strips of
kelps. The only truck in the village took us to our destination. Shortly before
that a coastal fish processing plant was shut down here, with fishing and
processing now being done on the large floating factories. The plant's premises
and barracks for workers were in good condition still, and together with other
students we occupied a large room soon packed with our equipment. The warden of
a hostel showed us where the oars from the boat belonging to the Institute were
kept, warning that we should see it was not smashed through the rocks during the
ebb. In a pump power station we installed our compressor, and our preparations
to diving completed.

Particularly striking on the Barents Sea coast was a littoral belt several
hundred meters wide that revealed at ebb tides. Ebbs on the Murmansk coast are
semi-diurnal, i.e. occur twice in 24 hours, to be more precise - in 24 hours 47
minutes. Marginal difference of levels between a flow and an ebb depends upon
the relative position of the Sun and the Moon and in Dalnie Zelentsy was almost
five meters difference. All of the littoral was densely covered with kelp of
several types, and some of them were provided with air bubbles that raised them
during a flow tide. Algae swarmed with different small animals, particularly
numerous were gastropod mollusks with twisted shells and amphipod crustaceans.
One could walk on the littoral belt for hours scrutinizing its diverse
population and collecting the most interesting specimens. That was the task of
the numerous students for their practical work in hydrobiology and invertebrate
zoology, as well as the researches of the Institute studying the littoral belt.

As for us we were to explore the depths of the sea, insufficiently known in
those times due to lack of diving facilities. To study soft sea bottom - sand
and silt - trawls, dredges, core samplers wer mployed, which are of little use
on rock bottoms.

Regular research of the Barents Sea by the Russian scientists in the early
nineteenth century, with a great amount of work carried out by Professor K.
Deryugin at a station in the Kola Peninsula. In 1915 he published his capital
work "Fauna of the Kola Bay and the Conditions of its Existence". Bearing in
mind the population of the rock coastal bottom he wrote: "...these biocoenoses
remain as an inheritance for the scientists to come." Later on we were to carry

out that precept of his, but at the moment we were guided by the adventurous
motives mainly, although we knew of his work by hearsay.

We took our equipment to a small cape as if on purpose named Probnyi (Trial)

that was four hundred meters off the Institute's premises in a narrow strait

between the islands. We were particularly fearful of rising and falling tides
and started to dive with great caution.

Bnepsiie nox soay Bapennesa mopa.

2 A2i1n

The richness of the sea life was striking. First we swam above the littoral
which was covered with vertical thickets of algae - rockweed and bladder wrack,
glittering in the sunlight patches in all shades of yellow and brown. Among them
amphipods and numerous juvenile fish resembling small cod swam.

per were forests of long kelps - laminaria. At first there were the lashes of

ugar wrack up to two meters high, and they gave plac
hick leather-like blades were cut in several lashes and waved in water hither

to split whip wrack - its

he function of an anchor or sucker. Small mollusks

covered with a thick

cringe of red and green algae. Laminariae held onto the rocks with powerful
hizoids that resembled the roots of the land plants,

but in reality bore only

D
Ss
and thither like long strips of light-brown. Some wer
f
c

mussels, sea anemones,

rabs and other animals were abundant. Here, very close to a shoreline one could
ummage for hours, but the greater depths appealed to us.

At Probnyi Cape the laminaria belt was narrow, and soon after it spread the
fields of red algae - Lithothamnion in their appearance resembling small corals.
All the sea floor was covered with sea urchins of green and violet colors. In
the dim light of the polar sun the floor itself seemed pink-red because of the
numerous colonies of Lithothamnion that covered it in a thick carpet and formed
incrustations of the most whimsical forms. Echinoderms common for the fauna of
seas with normal salinity and almost lacking in the Black Sea were numerous and
diverse here. For the first time we saw the ordinary large starfishes of
Asterias kind, and more rare colorful multi-armed Solasters of half a meter in
diameter of all shades from blue and violet to yellow, and bright-red
Crossasters, usually with fourteen arms. All these starfishes are predators,

they feed on all types of sea animals - sea urchins,

large bivalve mollusks -

horse mussels, whose shells look like the ones of the Black Sea mussels, but

larger and coarser and numerous others.

The impressions were numerous, as were the difficulties. We had to carry all our

equipment to the diving places that were sometimes several kilometers away.

Every scuba weighted 22 kilograms not counting a suit, diving underwear, fins,
weight belt, camera boxes and lots of other things. We failed to decide which is
better: to pull 50 kilos for once, or to divide the load and walk twice. At
times we used a boat, but it was a large awkward and cumbersome thing discarded

as a lifesaving boat from a ship years ago. Two rowers were not enough for it,

it moved at a snail's pace. Our equipment caused us lots of trouble. Something
was wrong with the system of sealing of our suits, and soon we had to ignore the
numerous pinholes in rubber. After the first diving woolen underwear in the best
of cases got moist, but very often became soaking wet since we dived twice or
three times a day. There was absolutely no possibility to dry out the underwear,
while to put on a wet one was torture. Although the water was not very cold -
from seven to ten degrees Celsius, hands and soon all the body felt cold from
the very first minutes of diving, and seldom did we swim for more than twenty
minutes. Our boundless enthusiasm helped us to overcome all the hardships, and
we were busy from early morning till late at night - it was a polar day and the
sun never set hanging low above the sea like a red-hot saucepan.

Tleppnie akBasiaHru. BapeHueso mope.

Once late at night there was a knock at the door and Oleg Serov - our friend in
the days when we dived in Novyi Svet entered the room which was blocked up with
the gear in all the stages of repair. We were surprised not only at our friend's
unexpected appearance, but the news that other divers worked here; we never saw
anyone. It turned out that Oleg was a participant in the expedition that left
Moscow several days ago and he had to join it in Murmansk. The expedition
reached Zelentsy only by the next ship bringing with it a powerful compressor
and equipment, in comparison to which ours was very primitive.

Delirious with joy we tried to share our first impressions about the true sea,
but only Serov and a friend of his Slava Stepanov and two or thr other peopl
shared our excitement. It was one of the regularly occurring periods of bad
weather and the view of a sullen clouded sky depressed many of the expedition
members. W xpected that the newcomers would start diving immediately, but
instead they organized a meeting where only one question was considered: to
leave for the Black Sea immediately, or stay here for several days. A compromise
settlement was reached, and for a couple of days we were allowed to use their

compressor and dived a lot with Serov and Stepanov. Soon the expedition boarded

the ship and we were lef

Every time we expanded o

t alone face to face with our unreliable compressor that

overheated and stopped constantly; we wasted half a day to fill our tanks.

ur area of diving and on the days when there was no

storm rested on the seashore and swam in a narrow strait. We could not ignore

ebb and flow tides: they
and only for a very shor
reason we had to choose

are inconstant, their force and direction changeable
t time did they stop during high and low water. For that
the time so that the tides helped us, not prevented us

from diving. In many places precipitous cliffs steeped to a depth of more than
30 meters, and very often it was hard to find a place to moor a boat or have
rest. It was very easy to get lost underwater among the large stones covered
with kelp. If a diver fails to come back to the place from where he descended
the consequences may be grave, since the currents are too strong to swim

against.

SCUBA is simpler in use than oxygen equipment and a diver does not run a danger

efficient and safe. Bitt

we did without accidents
we saw around; each tim

to lose his consciousness due to the slightest mistake. We were rather well
trained, but we still organized our diving so that the work under water was more

r experience we acquired in the Black Sea made us

rather cautious, and although not everything was as good as we wished it to be,

. For all our efforts we were rewarded with everything

we dived we saw new plants and animals of which was

known little or were unknown. Sponges, sea cucumbers, numerous crabs, and other

sea creatures gradually became for us not some abstract object of curiosity or

study, but a reality of our everyday life.

Our problems were related mainly to our equipment that left much to be desired.

Only scuba proved rather

reliable, but soldered alternately with silver and tin

solders they rusted by the seasons end so that it turned out impossible to
repair the holes. According to some strange rul veryone who undertakes
something new from a zero point follows the way of technical progress all by
himself. In technical books of the 1950s advanced methods of sealing, and design

of valves were described

. Nevertheless, at that time and later the underwater

cameras were provided with fingers cut off from rubber gloves, and there were
lots of other "improvements" of the kind. The development of the present day
diving suits took more than twenty years, and while nothing principally new was
invented, some features of rubber were taken into consideration. If the same

amount of investments as
could have had much more

the ones made in space-suit development were made w
perfect diving equipment.

But even with our leaking suits and unreliable cameras, and a compressor in

permanent need of repair
Barents Sea is inhabited

, we advanced in our knowledge and experience. Th
by plants and animals of different origin, and related

to the particularities of its hydrological regime. The greater part of the sea

freezes in winter and is

inhabited by polar water organisms, in general typical

of the whole Arctic basin. The Gulf Stream warm current that takes its source in

the Gulf of Mexico penetrates the sea from the southwest. One of its branches
comes near the Murman coast, that is why the sea here never freezes in winter
and alongside with the Arctic animals it is inhabited by the warm water ones,
so-called boreal organisms. Many of them are characteristic of the coastal
waters of France and Portugal, and despite the numerous slight differences the
general outlook of the coastal animal and plant communities along the European
coast is very similar. Depending on fluctuations of the Gulf Stream’s power and
the century climatic changes the boundary between the Arctic and boreal

population groups shifts

constantly.

AxsananructTe: Ha Bapennesom mope.

Starting to dive at greater depth in the straits along the open seashores w
discovered animals considered to be rare here. There were large sea urchins
Echinus esculentus (i.e. sea urchin edible), of 12 centimeters in diameter, and
large crabs resembling the Kamchatka king crabs but smaller. K. Deryugin saw
these animals near the Kola Bay, but during all that time that biological
station operated in Dalnie Zelentsy only a few specimens were caught. Now it
turned out that they are not at all so rare, but live at a depth of more than 20
meters in the straits on rocky bottom. We were very proud that the specimens w
collected were placed in the Institute's museum and the director himself,
Professor Kamyshilov came to have a look at them.

Mikhail M. Kamyshilov was an extraordinary person. In the 1930s while working in
Moscow he had written one of the best works on genetics in the country (today it
is still cited). But in 1948 genetics was proclaimed a pseudo-science and it was
changed for so-called Michurin's biology, in fact the same Lysenkovism that
promised to resolve all the scientific and applied problems of biology and
agriculture in the shortest time possible. That biology had very little to do
both with I. Michurin and science in general, since it demanded to take on trust
all the dogmas without any objective proofs. M. Kamyshilov had to give up his
research and move to Murmansk Biological Station where he studied zooplankton.

Very soon the groundlessness of the administrative solution of the scientific
problems became obvious, and genetics regained it place among other sciences du
to the development of nuclear power engineering and the striking achievements in

microbiology that developed new antibiotics. Yet it didn’t happen immediately
and for some time there was both classic genetics and Michurin's biology. M.
Kamyshilov headed the institute he organized on the basis of the station, but
never came back to genetics. A very dynamic, erudite person speaking several
languages he was one of the first real scientists whom I met. He was formed both
as a person and scientist at the times when science was not regarded as a
productive force and nobody expected any practical results from it. As director
of the Institute Mikhail Mikhailovich was not always right, but everybody
admired his personality and creativity.

He invited me to his office. I never saw a director’s office so filled with
Petri dishes of the protozoa cultures that he studied that time, anda
microscope in the middle of his large table. Later, working at the Institute I
got to know that this very microscope served not only for the research. If some
annoying person entered the office the director bent over microscope and said:
"Later, I'm counting." Mikhail Mikhailovich offered me to organize a diving
research team at the Institute.

That was when I for the first time pondered on the prospects of my future life
and work. I could not accept the offer immediately, since I was assigned to one
of the Leningrad-based research institutes. Fortunately, that particular
institute just as the Murmansk one was within the Academy of Science, and
transfer to the Far North could by no means be regarded as evasion from
assignment. There were vacancies at the Murmansk Institute since by some strange
order the application of polar benefits did not extend to it.

I had to change the profession, since I was a chemist by education and knew
little of marine biology and zoology. How could I apply my chemistry background
that I must admit was hindered considerably by diving? The sea appealed to me,
but there were some family problems and it was not clear what would I do in the
North during long polar nights and what at all I would do. I could not give an
immediate answer, but Kamyshilov's offer sounded irresistibly appealing to me.
My spirits were vague, we kept on diving for two more weeks, and then with large
bottles of seawater for the Institute of Cytology and collections came back to
Leningrad.

That autumn I was appointed as senior laboratory assistant. I studied kinetics
of thermal decomposition of plastics ina full glass experimental apparatus. But
my thoughts were at the steep cliffs, I heard sea birds cry and felt that
unusual smell that only the sea has... Particularly depressing was that before
my eyes I saw another senior laboratory assistant, a junior researcher who had
worked at the laboratory for several years and was getting bold, and so on, so
forth, all the way up the hierarchy to the laboratory head, a respected
scientist with high degrees. Many of these people worked within one and the same
laboratory for years. Kamyshilov's offer appealed so that it was impossible to
resist.

My family was against my removal to the North, they would like it more if I
worked as chemist in Leningrad diving - so be it - at vacation time. But the
decision was made. The formalities delayed me in Leningrad for a year, in summer
of 1960 I was again in Dalnie Zelentsy with two scuba, a diving suit and small
amount of poor equipment.

PROFESSION - ECOLOGIST

They gave me a warm welcome at the Murmansk Biological Institute. But nobody
could imagine what I, a chemist would do, as well as what underwater
explorations are and how one can manage them. I got a free hand and they offered
me their assistance in taxonomy. The director agreed to cover some small costs
to invite two or three divers in summer time, reimbursing their travel and meals
expenditures. From time to time I dived alone, but had not enough courage to
make it a system, so in the fall of 1960 I invited K. Gorchin, an old friend of
mine to visit me in the North. By that time a great number of divers had already
gained experience in the Black Sea, and our film, pictures and stories about the
diving in the North aroused interest and stirred another wave of enthusiasm.
More appealing were the Far Eastern seas, but for the majority of Muscovites and
Leningraders they were beyond their reach. The sports club of the Academy of
Science once organized an expedition to Moneron Island, a small islet with clear
water and rich life near Sakhalin. The academicians could manage flying to the
Far East, but the common people could not afford such a trip; Murman was much
closer - a little more than 24 hours by train from Moscow or Leningrad.

The matter with diving was cleared somehow, not with the choice of research
theme. In the late 1950s - early 1960s at many institutes the groups started to
apply the new underwater approach to research. In general diving training was
not very good, while equipment was not supplied much at all, say nothing of the
quality of it. For years they invited amateur-divers to carry out different
works. Large diving clubs, particularly the ones in Ukraine carried out their
own research programs. At the same time it became clear that the underwater
investigations should be conducted by professionals.

The hardest task of all was to choose the research theme - I had little
knowledge of biology, while nobody could help me. To suggest a theme to a young
researcher is difficult first of all because it must correspond to those
aptitudes of a person that should reveal only during his work. The ability to
suggest to a beginner the appropriate object of study is a gift not every
scientist has. If the task chosen is too complicated a young researcher can fail
in it, while too simplified it may be of no interest, the results disappointing.

At first I intended to observe the behavior of fish under water, to register
their reaction to the sounds of bass and infrasonic frequencies. The majority of
fish have special organ - a lateral line that in ichthyologists’ opinion let
them sense movement and low frequency acoustic vibrations. Such disturbances
appear when any object, fish itself, moves in water; they almost never die down
and are propagated a long distance. They are likely to create the acoustic
picture of the world for the fish, since the light even in transparent water
does not penetrate deep. The study of fish behavior in relation to low frequency
vibrations is of interest from a theoretical point of view since it may open a
possible way to the control of fish behavior at sea. Nevertheless, the issue is
very complicated to be researched: th xperiments cannot be performed in tank,
since the length of acoustic waves in water is very large. I realized that there
is not any reasonable technical and scientific approach to that problem; the
undertaking itself seemed unreasonable. I decided to explore more accessible and
better studied communities of the sea floor. As for the species composition the
plants and animals of the Russian northern seas have been reasonably well
studied. Marine hydrobiology appeared almost simultaneously on the Black Sea
coast where Sevastopol biological station was established in 1872, and in the
North Sea, where a small station in the Solovetskie Islands appeared in 1881.
The Solovetskie Islands belonged to a monastery and upon the synod's complaint
(the lay educated men drink vodka, don't keep fasts and bring women to the

islands creating temptation to the monk's brotherhood) the station was soon
closed. K. Deryugin put great efforts to open the new station in 1899 in the
Kola Bay, the Barents Sea. I knew Deryugin's works rather well, and practice was

ahead of me.

peocsnt

/lanbune 3exeHuEI B Kypry.

It was hard to choose the specific research topic; one needs both a feeling and
experience for that, but luckily, ecology - a science on relations between an
th vague boundaries.

organism and its environment is a very broad subject wit

does is the subject of ecology." I had nothing against

Eugene Odum, a founder and leading figure in modern ecology wrote: "An ecologist
is a free bird, he decides for himself where to go and what
that

uncertain whether I would be able to cope with the purely biological job of

to do, and what he
approach, but felt

sample treatment and taxonomic determination of the animals collected. The

literature on the subject is voluminous. I could also count on assistance of the
experts. The animals of the Barents Sea are well presented in the collections of
both our and the Zoological Institute; nevertheless, it took me several years to
overcome that uncertainty and start practically treating the samples in full

scale.

There were two things to be cleared out in the first place. First - how typical
of the Murmansk coast (later on the works were held in the other areas of the
Barents Sea) were the regulations of plant and animal distribution in the area
of Dalnie Zelentsy. Second - what were the seasonal changes in the vertical
distribution of marine life?

The first task was resolved mainly by small offshore expeditions. The Institute
had two small vessels of 40-65 tons capacity that took us to the different
points along the coast. For two-thr weeks we worked at one point using
inflatable dinghies or walking along the shore, then the vessel came and took us
to another place. We visited a number of islands and bays from Kharlovskie
Islands in the East to the Ain Islands in Waranger-fjord in the west.

As early as the Middle Ages the Ain Islands were famous for their rich hayfields
that belonged to a monastery off Pechenega. Large colonies of sea birds,
puffins, eiders, gulls, terns inhabit the islands. Long ago the islands were
proclaimed a wildlife preserve and bird colonies are numerous here.

Puffins are the most beautiful birds here. They are rather small dove-size birds
with a red beak, white front and bright black feathering. Puffins belong to the
Alcidae (auk) sea bird family that includes auks, guillemots and some others.
With their strong beak the puffins dig holes in a soft turf soil where they
hatch two eggs. The holes are found on the islands only, since there are no
small predators here - ermines, weasels and rats - mortal enemies of sea birds.
Several nesting-places in the Ain Islands belong to puffins, the rest of the
territory occupied by the numerous colonies of gulls, eiders and terns.

The underwater realm off the Ain Islands in some general features was similar to
the other places of Murman, but particularly was noted for its richness and
diversity. Seaweed several meters long formed thick forests, below stretched
Lithothamnion fields teeming with sea urchins and starfishes of all types.
Further followed dull sand slopes, but at a depth of more than 20 meters
Lithothamnion appeared again inhabited by numerous animals, scallop among them.
The latter one was not only beautiful but delicious and nutritious. Among the
underwater population of the Ain Islands, as it was expected, warm water boreal
forms prevailed as compared to Murman. In our net collecting bags we found oar
weed typical of waters off England and Norway but never discovered here befor
Warm water Echinus sea urchins and Lithodes crabs were abundant, hermit crabs,
gastropods and bivalve mollusks common for the European waters and occasional to
the east off the Kola Bay were abundant.

ira

The waters off the Kharlovskie Islands to the east off our Zelenetzkaja bay were
characterized by abundance of cold water organisms and lack of many species we
found off Dalnie Zelentsy. At the same time the basic, or so-called dominant
forms of the rocky bottom population of the Murman coast were very similar or
close; the general impression of the underwater environment in different points
of Murman was approximately the same.

YoOexume Tin 3MMHHX CHyCKoB.

These high granite islands to a larg xtent were an antipode to the low,
covered with rich vegetation the Ain Islands, and impressed with their arctic
magnificence. Steep cliffs were occupied by the rookeries of guillemot and auks.
Total number of birds reached a million which was large for the Barents Sea. Th
birds fed on zooplankton and small Arctic cod. That fish spawns in great
quantities in the areas of the upwelling where bottom waters rich in nutrients
come to the surface. In summer time these nutrients comprising nitrogen,
phosphorus, and silicon are absorbed by the numerous microscopic algae, which in
their turn serve as food for the herbivorous crustaceans, consumed by predator
crustaceans, eaten by fish and birds.

As a result of several small expeditions it was elucidated that sea organisms
inhabiting the Dalnie Zelentsy area are typical of all the Murman coast of the
Barents Sea and that is why it was expedient to conduct the research here.

These few years were the time w

hen the backbone of our team of divers was

formed, people who nearly always spent their vacation time in Dalnie Zelentsy
and participated in expeditions. They were V. Iogansen, A. Vasiliev, B.

Kotletsov, S. Aganezov, S. Ryba
from Moscow. There were lots of

and help

in our work. Those wer

by a common interest and passio

Gradually we gained experienc
based on thorough personal training of every diver under the guidance of an

experienced coach. The rules established by the official diving service could
hardly help us. There were no g
managed to learn how to scuba d
trauma ear bleeds, with treatm
understand his senses. Only by

and what
surface.

kov from Leningrad, O. Serov and B. Volodenko
others who came once or twice to see the North

e very different people, but they all were united

n for diving and underwater exploration.

and worked out a system of accident-free diving,

rave accidents in our group, but few people
ive without damaging the ear drum. Under the

is not, when you may s
Our doctor S. Aganezov

nt required. To prevent the trauma a diver should
personal experience one can learn what is allowed
tand ear pain and when it is necessary to

did well with the cases.

In the early 1960s Dalnie Zelentsy became very popular with divers. Every summer
large groups of divers came here, and several accidents with lethal outcome

happened

. It was necessary to i

nvestigate all the reasons to make our own diving

safe, and to work out some rules and recommendations for amateur divers who very
often did not have any experien
diving training was either formal, or based on good swimming results. Skills

acquired under such sportive training are useful to carry out that kind of work
during the implementation of which lungs and circulatory system fail to supply

the tissues with

ce. Accidents were caused mainly by two reasons:

the required amount of oxygen, resulted in oxygen deficiency

that is liquidated gradually after th xercise is completed. The use of these
skills in cold water, in a cumb
and caused oxygen deficiency of

consciou

sness, Since in human b

fall of oxygen partial pressure
was secured did not always provide safety: there were the cases when a diver

ascended

to the surface, tossed

ersome and rigid diving suit hindered breathing
such a degree that it resulted in a loss of

ody there are no organs warning of a dangerous
in blood. The use of a line to which the diver

off a helmet and lost his consciousness. He

usually drowned before buddies managed to drag him out.

Neither me, nor the director of
diving. We approached the issue

air free
powerful
tanks we
thorough
years we

the Institute had any formal right to forbid
from another angle. We could provide compressed

to all the certified d
compressor. I worked o
re filled only after th
ly. This measure howev
did not have any grave
teams were able to s

ivers, Since by that time we had a rather

ut the regulations on accident prevention, and

e heads of the diving teams studied them

c simple it may seem proved efficient: in twelve
mishap, not counting ear barotraumas. Even the
the underwater realm of the Barents Sea, while

weakest
the most

xperienced divers und

erstood that there is no easy diving here. Up to

now I praise it as my great achievement that we managed to do without

administ
divers.

rative measures or any
It is hard to tell for

kind of prohibition and helped a great number of
sure what role was played by the safety system,

but when I left and our group disintegrated, mortal accidents started to happen

again.

Tlepex norpyxxenuem

It should be noted that the very spirit of the time was conducive to the
achievements. Now it is hard to imagine particularly for those who never
participated in a collective work at that time that the attitude to a deed, the
aims and motivations differed greatly from the present ones. The majority of the
participants in our diving were not going to become professional divers or
researchers and never pursued any mercenary or selfish goals. The very
participation in an exploration of the unknown underwater realm was both the
ulterior motive and the highest reward. Numerous were cranks who spent months to
make the gear to dive once or twice. Many of the hardships we perceived as
something absolutely natural; nobody complained or showed his displeasure at the
idea that to reach a diving place one would have to row in a cumbersome boat for
two hours. The general level to resolve all sorts of technical, organizational,
research tasks was rather low at that time; the same work can be done quicker
and better nowadays.

Attitude to a job as the main thing in one's life was a characteristic feature
of late 1950s - 1960s. At long polar nights many windows of the Institute were
lit - in all the laboratories the work was done. At that time it was considered
to be improper to write a Ph. D. thesis during work hours. All sorts of
formalities like reports, plans, and meetings were not numerous, at least behind
the Polar Circle, but all the researchers had to do the rough work for
themselves. I have already mentioned the director who himself counted bacteria
colonies in Petri dishes and did the job any laboratory assistant could do.

Nevertheless, skilled as they were at practical work many of the staff knew
little foreign languages and the world scientific literature; with great
difficulties they wrote research publications, the greater part of the materials
piled up in unpublished reports nobody ever read. Because of research journals'
heavy burden of manuscripts the publication was delayed for years; a scientist
defended his dissertation years after the thesis was completed. The majority of
the Institute's personnel worked hard in expeditions and for a long time
processed the data collected. Frequent absence from work, long tea breaks and

personal career interests were not at that time so wide spread as to hinder the
research, at least in the Far North. Disputes among the staff occurred, but the
feeling of unanimity was so great that they never allowed them to prevail.

Jlero — Bpema akcne_unMi,

Life in the North was hard; meat was in scarce supply, while fruits were
delivered here only twice or thr times a year. In summer we hunted for sea
birds, although their meat has a very specific smell. Hunting and fishing were
not regulated and were practiced in all seasons and without any licenses. Rifles
and cartridges were sold freely. All the cargoes bound for the Institute and
materials for construction were unloaded by the researchers with the help of
primitive winches. Living conditions were poor beyond description, but there
were little complaints. There occurred hard drinking, suicides, some people left
Dalnie Zelentsy for large cities, but the backbone remained and worked. On the
whole it was austere, but an exciting life. Nobody felt himself to be a second-
grade person, since nobody considered that true science was made in Moscow or
Leningrad only, while we are too far away. Everybody did what he did and
regarded it as important and necessary. Spring and summer were the seasons of
general animation - the human dependence on natural factors is more obvious in
the North than anywhere else.

The Kola Peninsula changed little since when the first people appeared her
several thousand years ago. That was the last glacial period and prehistoric
tribes inhabited the seacoast free from ice, some of the sites preserved till
nowadays. Of hordes of wild reindeer, few remained. The White Sea coast was
inhabited by the Russians hundreds of years ago, and the distinctive culture of
Pomory developed here. In summer they fished in Murman in their small sailboats,
and happened to reach Scandinavia and Spitsbergen. In the river mouths small
temporary fishing towns counting several thousand residents appeared.
Nevertheless, the permanent population was very small, and only in the late
nineteenth century some measures were taken to urge people to stay here for
permanent residence. The true adoption of the Murman coast started in the 1920s
when commercial trawl fishing began to develop and numerous fishing villages
appeared.

B. C. Jly6anon.

In the 1930s they fished mainly from the traditional Pomor boats; small-capacity

trawlers were few. All the fish-processing facilities were based on the shore.
Murman was rather densely populated, and villages were located in almost every

convenient bay.

Reorganization of the fishing fleet, transition to employment of large floating
fish processing factories, and expansion of fishing grounds to the high sea
resulted in the gradual decline of coastal fishing and all the fishing
settlements. Many of them were deserted, and the population of the Murman coast
decreased considerably.

B. C. Morancen.

Rocky tundra is absolutely unfit for agriculture, and little changed since
prehistoric times, Arctic birch forests were preserved well mainly because they
were of no value for construction. Salmon was still plentiful, rivers and lakes
boiled with loach, Arctic char, and grayling.

Sea animals had already learned to be afraid of men, but seals still formed
teeming rookeries in river mouths. More than once I tried to approach seals in
scuba, but each time failed since the keen animals heard the sound made by the
regulator and kept 10-15 meters away.

Dolphins of several kinds were common in summer, when the water got warm;
belugas sometimes six meters long appeared in spring on their way to the White
Sea and Arctic. Only once in all those years I happened to s large Greenland
whales which were numerous in the Barents Sea before whaling started three
hundred years ago. Their smaller relatives - bowhead whales, were common.

The numerous colonies of loons and small ducks nested on fresh-water lakes,
geese were few, and fewer were swans.

The abundance of sea birds on the sea shores was striking; the rookeries still
counted hundreds of thousands, although their number gradually decreased mainly
due to oil spills. Kittiwakes are the most wide spread birds on the Murman
coast; the number of cormorants increases in recent years. Other inhabitants of
rookeries belong mainly to Auks bird family; guillemots of two species and close
to them razorbills that sometimes nest separately or in small colonies. Common
are large gulls and ravens that feed on eggs, chicks, and weak birds. Large are
the flocks of eiders. There were times when gyrfalcons were numerous in Murman.
In sixteenth and seventeenth centuries these birds were regularly provided to
the Tsar's court for the falconry. They disappeared completely by now, although
in the 1960s there were two or three pairs that nested on rocky ledges near th
Voronia River 30 kilometers off the town.

Sea birds are very interesting from the point of view of their role in
biological and chemical cycles in the sea. Their taxonomy and distribution are
studied rather well, and that cannot be said about their role in a circulation
of nutrients in marine environment although in some areas their colonies are
enormous.

A young ornithologist of our Institute Alexander Golovkin researched th cology
of sea birds. He studied their feed rations determining what share in it was
commercial and non-commercial fishes, in what time the nutrients (nitrogen and
phosphorus specially) return to the seawater with bird's feces, what contributed
to the development of tiny plankton algae producing the organic matter - the
basis for everything alive at sea. All of that was of great interest, and I took
every opportunity to spend several days at the rookeries and sometimes helped
Golovkin, but still I was more interested in adventures, not the research value
of these studies. Alongside with the study of benthic communities of the Murman
coast our task was to research seasonal changes in marine life, so it was
necessary to master all year round diving. The first problem to be resolved was
how not to get cold before getting into the water. Hands and face had to be
isolated from water but in such a way that a diver could put on and off the gear
himself and could row in the dinghy or carry all his gear. It was necessary to
prevent ice formation within the scuba regulator itself. Combining the detached
parts of the oxygen and scuba gear, I made a new helmet; A. Vasiliev invented
the suitable joints for the rubber gloves. Now I was not afraid of getting
frozen before I reached the water edg

In winter a gale in Murman may last for weeks, but there occurred days when the
sea was so calm that it reflected the stars high in the dark sky. I dived in

those short hours when the rays of the far away sun reflected in the sky and the
night stepped aside.

The first that struck me in winter was extremely transparent water with a
visibility to 40-50 meters. It was dark underwater, but even small animals could
be seen in 30 meters depth, although colors were hard to distinguish. The
combination of exceptional transparency with dim lightning created a vivid
impression. When late February allowed enough light to penetrate the waters, the

underwater

realm became mor

colorful than the gloomy world on the surface.

rather

Seasonal changes in bottom communities of the Barents Sea wer

insignificant and
seaweed, pa

rubber dinghy and
for weeks prevent

By 1963 the first

undertake more sp
participate in an
Sea of Japan. The

Insti
zoological
time that the Zool

samples,

were limi

rticularly the g
animals from shallow to deep waters in winter.

reen

th

one in spring,

nlarged
dus from

stage of

a

the a

cific research
expedition of
application of

ogical In

tute O. Kusakin and A. Goli
but failed due to lack of

stitu

based
Science,
direc
Docto

Biology

r of Science,

graduates.
learned many
wate

under water. Ev
treatment of eve
everything from
of p
repeatability of
many young resea

taxonomists. In

knowledge is still

rchers,
second sampling in the very same place would giv
to the ones collected the first time.

on the use of SCUBA.
(later,
tor of the Institution),
head of
prominent scientists joined the expedition,

Biology,

r was warm and shallow,

wo
taxonomis

mathemati

cal subjects,

It wa

the fellow member of

wh

if possible at all,

a result the researchers knew nothing about the quantitative t

results and understood the term "observation erro

their work as bad. In reality the error of

person, but characteristics of heterogeneity of the natural ma
determining with what degree of precision the res

thought that it was necessary to search for the ways to

work carried out with such a procedure of sampling and their t

would allow not only to describe the distribution of plants and animals,
applying the statistical methods to separate random from regular,

the results to

For science as a whole
statistics was well developed and i
information can be received from the results of research despi
I learned the basics of s

heterogeneity.

those bo

ttom areas f

those though

rea of study,

diving.

rea study was completed,

ted mainly by mass development of several kinds of
and migration of some of the sea
Later on we learned to sail ina

but very often atrocious weather

and it was time to

tasks. As an
the Zoological

xperienced diver I was invited to
Institute to the Posiet Bay,
diving methods developed rapidly.
before first scuba appeared in that country,

the
Several years

the researchers of the Zoological

kov tried to us

log

CE O

s headed by Orest

ile the inspirer
the marine re

gear

oxygen rebreathers to collect

istics.
Skarlato,

was Alexande

It was for the first
rganized such a large expedition completely
Candidate of

the Russian Academy of Science and

r Golikov, later

search depar
engineer, st

I was invited as a diving instructor and underwate
things first of all as a researcher.
and my students learned quickly to
rything collected was classified with great p
ry quantitative sample was very laborious and
the very beginning in order to compare and es
recision seemed unnecessary to botanists and zoologists.

data in domestic hydrobiology then was never
doubted that our data could b

Diving condi

tment. Several
udents and post-

r photographer, but
tions were easy,
take samples
recision. Complete
to repeat

timate the degree

As a rule,

The issue of
raised. I, like
repeated, 1. that a
the same or very close results

zoologists are specialists-

It is very hard
Since it is necessary to have access to

taxonomic g
to the hyd

in the whole count
roup. Against
robiology. Coun

xcluded from

wer

rom where samp

ts were no
ts principal

°

tatis

les were not

t something new,

bjective was

tics at the chemistry faculty,

ult can be reproduced.

that science a tradition was preserved in accordance with which
he opinion of an expert was regarded as final.
taxonomy from books,
main collections and to be guided by an expert.

to learn

In taxonomy as science the
in great degree transferred from teacher to s
since it is common when only one specialis
rld studies this or that particular

ts have shifted that approach
consequences of the suppression of genetics - a "pseudo-science",
statistics included

tudent directly,
ry or even in the
their will the
ted as well the
when

the curricula.
reatment of

As

cr" as something characterizing
observation is not an error made by a

terial,
I

combine the volume of

reatment that

but

to extrapolate
taken.

since mathematical
to determine what
te their

but

they could not be applied directly to the task to describe the distribution of
organisms on the sea floor. While I was not good at theory, I had to

books and monographs to understand the basics of the methods,

fact.

Statistics demands a large number of repeated samples,

have - the more you know about variation,

while a single sampling is

sit with

rather simple in

since the more data you

not the

subject of statistics at all. But complete treatment of even a single sample is
very laborious, so it is necessary to search for some other way. As the result
of works in the Barents Sea and the Sea of Japan it became clear that in the

majority of cases large animals inhabit the hard bottom,

and their share in

living substance makes up 90-99%. The study of a single sample taken from a
square meter of bottom can take several days of laboratory work, but large

animals can be counted under the water, th

results written down, to

another site. Animals in an area of 10, 20,
during a dive; quantitative characteristics,

shift to

or 30 square meters can be counted
variation degree and precision

intervals of the results obtained could be determined with the use of
statistics. Yet, to shift from quantity to other variables, say, biomass, it is
necessary to determine the weight and the number of animals of different size. A
large amount of field work was done in order to substantiate and to use in
practice that method. My friends and colleagues and team divers helped me to put
in practice my method to study the distribution of animals on rocky bottoms.

The application of the method was a considerable step forward, since
possible not only to provide a subjective description, but determin

of precision of the results, to initiate the s

now it was

the degr

tudy of the statistical links

among the environmental conditions - depth, bottom, temperature and the number
Since that was the first time when I

of bottom animals. I was in high spirits,

got my own original results. In general science particularly in physics and
chemistry that approach was elementary. But for the Soviet hydrobiology that was
partly a return to the past together with the other basics of quantitative

biology hurled back in 1948, partly - a new fo

made at that time abroad.

Working in close cooperation with the researchers for the Zoological

rward step similar to the ones

Institute I

understood, that the taxonomic classification of the majority of animals of the

well-studied Barents Sea presents no real difficulties,
bent over the binocular microscope and the

By that time a researcher Sasha Pushkin joined our team.

thick taxonomic books.

joined a young naturalists club, but graduated from the Institute of
Culture. He was still keen on zoology and worked as a part-time labo
assistant for the Zoological Institute. Sasha was well trained physically and
had good skills in sampling. He rapidly learned how to use scuba, go
certificate, and our work advanced. He organized regular training in
and we kept ourselves in good shape that was absolutely necessary fo

All together - the broadened diving experience, the newness in resea

and had no fear when

In his childhood he

Physical
ratory

t his
a gymnasium
r diving.

rch

approach, the team formed - allowed to put more complex and original tasks than
a mere description of animals and plants distribution.

THE SIXTH CONTINENT

The participation in the Zoological Institute's expedition had for me some
informal consequences; during the work I made friends, and established contacts
with colleagues. A young zoologist and diver Evgeni Gruzov became my friend. In
Posiet it occurred to us to initiate research in Antarctic coastal waters.
Soviet expeditions to Antarctica became regular after 1956 in relation with the
preparation for the International Geophysical Year. They wer xtremely popular
at that time, with more than five thousand applications per vacancy being
submitted. In the years to follow after the International Geophysical Year the
research program was reduced, but the permanent Mirnyi and Molodezhnaia stations
on the Antarctic coast kept on working. There were not any traditional methods
to study the communities of the shallow waters under the ice cover, and some of
the coastal Antarctic areas were absolutely unexplored. As for the organization
of the expedition, the matter was simplified by the fact that the Zoological
Institute was the head institution in research of biology of the Antarctic, and
Professor Anatoli Andriyashev, the then deputy director, was in charge of the
work. Andriyashev was well known as a prominent scientist and respected for his
magnetic personality.

Antarctic expeditions were organized at first within the Academy of Science, and
then transferred to the Institute of Arctic and Antarctic subordinated to the
USSR Hydrometeorology Service. One of its objectives was to provide navigation
in polar areas. A polar veteran Evgeni Korotkevich headed th xpedition. A
leading scientist in polar geography, E. Korotkevich skied alone many kilometers
in the little explored islands of Franz Josef Land and Severnaya Zemlya mapping
them. Overloaded with management work as he was, he expressed profound interest
to all the details of the Antarctic research. But for the concern and assistance
of these two persons, their readiness to resume the responsibility for the new
and seemingly dangerous undertaking of underwater exploration in the Antarctic
coastal waters would have never been conducted in Russia.

Nevertheless, when in late 1963 we applied to A. Andriyashev the obstacles
turned out to be too numerous. We were the beginners and they did not treat us
seriously. When the International Geophysical Year was completed the research
programs were considerably reduced, and it was almost impossible to include some
new points to the programs. By summer 1965 after we had published the results of
our work carried out with the use of SCUBA, the attitude to our proposals became
more favorable. We started to prepare for the work in Antarctic.

In Zelentsy we made a model of a foam rubber dry diving suit with high thermal
insulation characteristics. Before that either foam rubber wet suits, or
rubberized fabric dry suits were used. Although, as it turned out later, the
American scientists who worked in Antarctica simultaneously with us, dived in
common wet suits; their use in the extreme polar conditions seemed an act of
heroism.

Our new suits were based on a dry suit design but were made out of foam rubber
that in combination with several pairs of woolen underwear provided thermal
insulation. If a suit got ruptured a diver could regulate the buoyancy by
inflating it with his nose through special tubes. The diver’s head was covered
with a rubber helmet. That gear turned out to be a success and was used for
several years. In the second half of the 1960s I had an opportunity to try a
Swedish Poseidon Unisuit, which was considered to be the best gear for a
professional diver. I was amazed to find out that it was made using the very
same principles wi mployed in designing ours. There were some slight
differences like an unreliable pressure-sealing zipper, and a separate little

tank to pump air, but the general likeness was striking. The Swedish Poseidon
Unisuit was designed independently and made out of neoprene foam rubber
reinforced with a nylon knitted fabric that made it stronger than ours.

Alongside with the improvement of the suits, it was necessary to improve the
underwater cameras - the pictures of the unknown underwater world of Antarctic
were sure to be of research and cognitive value. Camera boxes produced by the
industry were primitive, unreliable and by no means could be used in Antarctic
conditions. We had to develop for ourselves flash lamps that are required for
shooting in darkness. Together with the divers Sergei Rybakov and Victor
Vakhranev I spent long hours in the summer of 1965 testing and modifying our
underwater cameras. We did not know whether it was light or dark under the ice
cover, and just in case made telephone communication and underwater illumination
gear. Fortunately, we almost did not have to use them.

Paper work was not so copious at that time, but the preparation for the work in
the Antarctic was not at all simple or easy. Each one of us was busy seven days
a week from early morning until late at night. Running ahead of the story I say
that thorough preparation justified itself and we had no insurmountable

difficulties or problems.

The Eleventh Antarctic expedition left for its destination place on board the
"Ob" diesel-electric ship in November of 1965. The ship was far from being
luxurious. The cabins accommodated four, six, eight and twelve people, wer
between decks, and had no ventilation, to say nothing of air-conditioning. In
the tropics the temperature mounted to 40-45 C, and we spent all our time on
deck. The "Ob" was meant for work in polar seas with an egg-shape hull that
increased its resistance to ice binding. But due to that same shape she pitched
and rolled during a storm, and in the Southern Ocean she had a 45 degree list.

«O6n» y 6eperon AnTapKTHABI.

The Eleventh Antarctic expedition was held ten years after the Soviet research
in the Antarctic began. The heroic period in exploration of the Southern
continent was over, as well as the requirement for heroism and efforts beyond
human endurance from polar explorers, but professionalism and a willingness to
live and work in little comfort were still required. The same field money in the
amount of twelve rubles per day were paid to every expedition member. Polar
researchers earned enough to buy a car upon their coming back and obtained a
special license so as not to wait in the general line. Yet, material issues were
not of any great importance for the expedition members.

After a half-month voyage we finally reached the Antarctic shores, or rather the
edge of thirty-kilometer deep fast shore ice surrounding the continent. While
snow trucks, tractors and sledges delivered cargoes to the shore, we dived for
the first time near the "Ob". W xamined the underside of the floe ice which
was smooth as a mirror and without any obvious traces of plants or animals. Our
diving gear worked well, while expedition leaders became convinced that under
ice diving was practically possible and was not fraught with mortal danger.

We installed in Mirnyi and started to prepare for diving. We began from a small
island where oil storage was constructed and to where trucks went regularly. We
cut holes in the two meter thick ice and measured the depth that differed
greatly from the ones on the map. After a number of tries we found a site twenty
meters deep. Using explosive we made a hole, cleaned it of floes and ice debris,
and installed a tent nearby.

As if by a mere chance V. Leonov, our physician, appeared with his bag packed
with medicines. Sasha Pushkin was the first to dive and I was his tender.
Minutes dragged on, Sasha's breath echoed in the headphones. I could not help
asking: "How is it down there?" Through the noise of bubbles came the indistinct
answer: "Plenty of everything, can work". At these words my heart leaped.
Uncertainty as to whether the results of our expedition would be a success,
Since many of the prominent scientists considered the Antarctic research
unnecessary and regarded them as waste of money and time, gave place to
excitement and presentiment of success. If everything, whatever it might be, was
plentiful, we would work. I burnt with desire to s verything with my own
eyes. 24 minutes had passed, enough for the first diving in new conditions, but
too little for Pushkin who used to stay underwater for a long time. Finally,
Sasha's head appeared above the water surface, and he passed me the collecting
bag, filled with brainy specimens. Thick ice covered the regulator and hoses,
and I helped him to take off the helmet. His words were short and vivid: "Plenty

of everything, sea cucumbers, urchins, heaven, icy feet." I started to unpack
the bag. The diversity of forms and colors was striking, particularly in
contrast to the featureless, stark desert around; brilliantly colored sea stars,

brazen orange soft corals, sea cucumbers, sea urchins of never-seen-before forms
and colors, strange egg-shaped creatures, and forms more fantastic than the ones
described in science fiction. The physician forgot everything about his
medicines and our health, and could not take his eyes off the creatures emerging
from the underwater realm.

Cpeyu neqanoi nycTsinn.

Back on the surface a diver becomes very talkative; we called it an incontinence
of speech. This time I caught every word Sasha said. "Very cold, hands and face
get cold, teeth ache from the air stream, but one can work. Water is like air,
but blue, at first it is dark, and then it's like some fantastic garden - what
is not, zonation, large depth is somewhere close". In the tropics we have lost

any habituation to cold. In Antarctic
point of minus 1.8 Celsius.

air in a regulator expands, results i

surfaces. In ice-cold water the losse
great since its outer layer cools to
overcooling becomes a factor of prime

thoroughly considered were such detail
the clothes used over the diving suit
cooling, since they have the largest

is small, and their blood circulation

Every additional

a the seawater is always at its freezing

cooling, e.g. when the compressed

n ice formation on the scuba equipment's

s of heat from the suit surface are very

a water temperatur Protection from
importance, with no trifles here;

ls as the form and location of pockets on

. Hands are particularly sensitive to

contact surface with water, finger diameter
is slow. From the theory of heat transfer

it is known that any thickening of he
value results additional heat loss

in
insulation layer for fingers makes up

companies produce heated insulating diving gloves,

at insulation layer above some definit
es. The optimal thickness of heat

only several millimeters. Nowadays some
- they were not produced in

1965, but even today there are no gloves absolu

water. Actively
the fact that g
process is slow and takes time.

heated gloves did not

into a hole and found myself in total
eyes gradually adjusted to a sharp ch
showed that less than a thousandth fr
the thick layer of snow and ice). Sof
on the surfac

shed on

At a distance I saw
underside of the ice
centimeters long spa

and the nearby r
kling in a blue

radually the fingers and palms becam
Thick woolen gloves of double
thin rubber glove put on above continue to be the most reliabl

verything around.

tely fit for working in ice cold
spread wide open, and one had to rely on
less sensitive to cold. The
knitting with a

I descended
darkness, and I got below the ice. The
ange of illuminance (later measurements

action of the surface light passed through
t, dispersed, light-blue light never seen
the cliffs steeped to the depth. Gradually I saw that the

ocks are covered with ice crystals several
light. At a depth of 15 meters I touched

the bottom - water t
lilac-blue. Usually
distance and disappear into turbid wa
gradually vanished in a
even fish at the bottom were as if en
reluctantly half a me
another world with bubbles from my sc

ranSparence was $s

he contours of objects in water became indistinct a
lilac distance.

ter away and stopped still again.

triking; it was like pure air colored

toa
while here they remained sharp but
Nothing moved in that fantastic world,
tranced. When I touched a fish it swam

I was an intruder from
ice abov Here, in the

Cer,

uba lifting to th

Davis Sea human eyes for the first time saw the underwater world.

log xen.

That motionless world was not at all dead, and was just the other way round;
animal abundance was striking. Deep purple sea urchins resembling the ones in
the Barents Sea and brilliant red sea stars were numerous among the ice
crystals. I dived to a depth of more than 20 meters. Sea cucumbers very much
like the ones in our Northern and Far Eastern seas covered the sea floor in
thick carpet. They seemed dormant, their tentacles pulled in. Large, up to a
meter in height, pink bushes of soft corals raised from the bottom, with
thickets of sponges in the background. The quantity and diversity of small
animals reminded me of a museum filled with the exhibits from all the seas and

preserved in bluish liquid. I had to remember about the research tasks of our
expedition, to divert myself from the surrounding beauties, and with an expert's
eye started to estimate zonation in animal distribution, to single out mass
forms and basic groups, to think how to organize the work. Meanwhile, I started
to feel cold penetrating the rubber of a diving suit. First, fingers froze, than
teeth ached in a stream of cold air from a mouthpiece, then with all my body I
felt the ice cold water all around. I collected the most characteristic animals
and went to the surface.

Yaaunpie c6opst.

After our first diving we organized a base to conduct the work. A trailer on the
sledges was allotted to us, and in it we installed all our equipment to study
the samples. In the weeks to follow we dived, collected the samples, counted,
weighted, wrote and attached labels, filled tanks, and did many other things. On
those days, weeks, months we had nothing but our work and absolutely necessary

rest. The high spirits we all were feeling are hard to describe. We dived mor
frequently and deeper, from time to time wrestling with the wind that struck the
Mirnyi, took pictures, shot a film, and several times changed the location of a
base.

Hamre xosaiicrBo Ha bay.

After two months of hard work, animal and plant distribution off Mirnyi was
studied rather well. Sometimes we found animals mentioned in books, and we found
ones we could not refer to any type. Later on, when we worked with the
collections it turned out that in some groups up to a half of the species wer
unknown to science. We collected numerous samples of ice algae and animals
inhabiting the underside loose ice layer. A. Andriyashev drew our attention to
the new American data according to which not only the water column, but the
underside of the floe ice is inhabited by algae. His idea approved later was
that in Antarctic conditions these algae might have a determining significance
in the productivity of the whole sea. In the end of our work which was completed
in four months, Gruzov and I managed to fly to Molodezhnaya station where we
held a reconnaissance for future work.

The description of the animal and plant distribution off the Antarctic, and the
collections were a success, but there aroused many questions having approximate
or no answers and demanding further experimental study. Sea floor communities of

the Antarctic were represented by a great number of species. This difference

from

the analogous communities in the Arctic was obvious. At the same time the

general laws of biological structure of the seas and oceans gave grounds to

xpect greater similarity. The most reasonable explanation for that is in the

ocean

o
lau

history.

Tlogroroska K cCbemMKaM.

At the time of the recent - in geological sense - ice period, the Arctic Ocean
some point in time was covered with thick permanent ice below which only a

few species of plants and animals could survive, with

the rest becoming extinct.

Later, in geological periods to follow when the ice melted in summer time, new

inhabitants migrated to the Arctic Ocean from the Nor
geological time scale the Arctic communities are youn
species managed to adapt to the severe polar conditio
is surrounded by deep water, and its shelf is shorter
Arctic. Glaciers cover nearly all of the Antarctic co
in the Arctic, icing occurred, ice cover thickened, b
inconsiderably, since the ice broke off at the shelf

th Atlantic and Pacific. In

g, and only some of the

ns. The Antarctic continent
and steeper than in the

ntinent. Here, as well as

ut its area increased

millions of years the conditions were rather stable,
inhabitants had enough time to adapt to low temperatu

ledge forming icebergs. For
and the majority of the

considerable diversity of bottom communities. Still i
the diversity of the Antarctic bottom communities. In
producer of organic matter is tiny algae - phytoplank
Antarctica only during a short period of two months w
sea surface breaks. As early as February, enough ligh
waters to initiate growth of a brownish layer of alga
ice. This algae is a pasture for ravenous grazing by

res, resulting in

t 1s not easy to explain
all the seas the basic
ton. It is plentiful in
hen the ice cover on the
t penetrates the frozen

e on the underside of the
shrimp like crustaceans

called amphipods. The amphipods attract Arctic cod, small pelagic fish that

haunt the flo dge. The key link in the long polar f
cod, and sea birds that feast on small crustaceans. N
can feed on ice algae only during the short summer wh

ood chain are ringed seals,
evertheless, bottom animals
n the ice cover breaks, so

the ways of energy transfer from plankton and ice alg
not yet quite clear.

During the four months' work in the Antarctic large c
and observations were made that were praised highly a
Andriyashev, E. Gruzov and I made presentations on th
International Antarctic Biology Congress in Cambridge
aroused interest. At the Congress we heard of similar
American biologists at McMurdo station on the Ross Se
it became clear that our expedition should lay the ba
program. It was necessary to study thoroughly what we
the bottom communities in some areas of the Antarctic
round observations, to set up a biological station in
adjustment mechanism of the living marine organisms t
wanted to plunge into that work, but at first had to

conducted in the Murman and to write a thesis. E. Gru
successfully the next Antarctic expedition during whi

ae to bottom dwellers are

ollections were gathered,
fterwards. In 1968 A.

e results obtained at the
, England, where they
research undertaken by

a coast. At the same time
sis for a large research
touched upon, to explore
, to conduct the all-year-
the Antarctic to study the
o the severe conditions. I
complete the research

zov headed and completed
ch some new areas wer

studied, in particular the South Shetland Islands. I defended my thesis and
planned to initiate the preparation for the expedition, but instead got into a

=

hospital with septicemia. E. Gruzov prepared the Anta
by that time A. Pushkin had joined the Zoological Ins

rctic expedition again and,
titute staff, specializing

in sea spiders which are particularly numerous in the
Biological Institution had no participation in Antarc

By the time the Antarctic expedition returned I had s
in the years to follow I could only dream of getting
these three Antarctic expeditions large quantities of

with the results studied for years at the laboratorie
Institute. The white spot in the Antarctic coastal wa
next step forward - transition to the experimental st

these waters - has never been done in Russian Antarct
exten

Antarctic. Murmansk Marine
tic activity any more.

tarted to dive again, but
to the Antarctic. During
material were collected,
s of the Zoological
ter disappeared, but the

udy of the processes in

ic expeditions. To a large

insti
Insti
were not conducted in any significant scale.

te in Antarctic biological research. The princ

Gt ch ret
G

this was related to the fact that the Zoological Institute was the head

ipal objective of the

ute was theoretical study of animal taxonomy, and experimental studies

To set up a biological station in the Antarctic, to staff it and provide with
equipment and materials, to work out the long-term research programs required
another institution, where the issues of physiology and biology were of prime
importance, but there was no such institution then. After a promising start the
Soviet underwater research in the Antarctic stopped.

ct ct

Nevertheless, the results obtained were of great value, and everybody who
participated in the work understood that we achieved great results. The
published results made us known in scientific community. Polar diving was not
regarded anymore as something fraught with danger, and soon a permanent team to
study polar ice headed by V. Grishchenko was formed at the Institute of Arctic
and Antarctic. They did not study biology at that Institute, but the existence
of the team made it possible for the researcher I. Melnikov of the Institute of
Oceanography to commence the study of polar ice at the North Pole drift ice
stations. While studying the algae on the underside of floe ice and
phytoplankton, he obtained exciting results. There were no direct link between
our works in the Antarctic and this research, but they would hardly have been
possible before our diving off Antarctica.

DEEPER AND LONGER

After diving in Antarctica it became clear that the first step in description of
the coastal zone in some sense was fulfilled. The research could and should be
expanded to the unexplored areas; it was necessary to consider the details in
biology and distribution of some separate species, but in my opinion that was
the work for the zoologists and botanists. As for me I strived to study
thoroughly the processes determining plant and animal distribution, not
restricting myself to a mere assertion of facts provided with statistical
analysis of the results.

The late 1960s to the second half of the 1970s was the time of broad underwater
research development, when the first underwater habitats appeared: The
Precontinent project created in France by Cousteau's team, Sealab and Tektite
projects in the USA, Ikhtiandr (Ichthyander), Sadko, and Chernomor projects in
this country, Helgoland habitat in Germany, and lots of others. It seemed that
man was finally able to penetrate the mysterious realm. Underwater research was
included in many national research programs. Cousteau wrote about a new human
race - Homo aquaticus, able to live and work under water. I regarded the
enthusiasm as premature, mainly because th fficiency of the underwater houses
and laboratories was not as high as their cost. Using the habitat an aquanaut
can work several hours a day underwater, but the costs for habitat production
and maintenance are immense. It is often cheaper and simpler to use three or
four divers to do the same work from the surface. Besides, the diving itself
makes up a small share in the research, with the greater part of the work being
carried out at the laboratories on the surface. Thus, the experiments with the
underwater habitats proved the capabilities of the advanced sophisticated
technology, but gave no direct scientific results worthy of expenses.

To continue the underwater research it was necessary to increase both the time
of stay underwater and the depth of diving. Before when we limited ourselves to
sampling and observations that seemed unnecessary. By mid 1960s to early 1970s,
our gear was not an amateurish apparatus provided with all sorts of self-made
improvements. Nevertheless, with due regard for the task we had ahead of us, it
was not the best. ABM-1M scuba gained a reputation of reliability, but it was
rather hard to breathe, since a regulator was on a diver's back. The suits
produced by the industry were uncomfortable; they lacked the buoyancy
regulators, cold insulation was insufficient, and required all sorts of
improvements. To swim with the help of fins particularly at large distances was
rather tiresome; there was a need for motion systems. On the whole the gear was
safe and reliable, but the time a diver could stay in it at a depth of more than
20 meters was not long. Movement and breathing demanded efforts; a diver got
tired quickly, and the efficiency of his work reduced.

We were to provide the following: all-year-round diving, if necessary below the
ice, and a diver had to stay in 20 meters of water for an hour per dive in order
to be able to work at the laboratory as scientist or technician before and after
that. While working at a depth of more than 15-20 meters it is necessary to
decompress, lingering on the way to the surface. Right at that time there
appeared the French and American decompression tables and the first works in
automatic computation of decompression schedule for every concrete dive. Their
use for relatively short diving allowed a considerable reduction of
decompression time.

The processes of saturation and desaturation are such that after a short dive
one can ascend to the surface without any stops (safety time). With the increase
of time spent at depth, the stops become necessary while coming up and become

longer, so that every minute of stay at a depth demands longer decompression. As
the body saturates with gas, the absolute time of stops still increases, while
the relative one - per every minute - decreases. At complete saturation of the
organism with gas, in a few days spent under pressure the duration of
decompression reaches its limit and does not depend any more on the time spent
at a depth. According to Cousteau's tables safety time at a depth of 20 meters
made up an hour and decreased rapidly to five minutes at a depth of 60 meters. A
dive with stops of not more than 15 minutes allowed a stay at a depth of 30
meters for 40 minutes, in 40 meters of water - for 20 minutes, 50 meters - 15
minutes. The standard gear we used at the time did not allow diving in
accordance with that table. It should be stressed that we were not going to
design a gear for all the divers in general, i.e. for common use. It was meant
for a small team of specially selected and trained divers with specific tasks.

In order to improve the working conditions of a diver and raise th fficiency
of his work we were to do the following: to design and construct a new scuba,
diving suit, towing craft, tools to work underwater, auxiliary equipment, safety
and train gear. We planned to make such a scuba that it would not have the
mechanical resistance to breathing and if necessary could be regulated so as to
fill the lungs of a diver with air. Still, with the increase of depth gas
exchange in lungs is hampered due to increase of breathing mixture density and
that cannot be overcome by any technical tricks, yet, diving exhaustion should
be relieved. The tank’s volume amplified to 24 liters under the pressure of 200
atmospheres ensured a long dive and the necessary decompression. At the same
time the volume and weight of cylinders, as well as the change of diver's
buoyancy as the air was consumed remained satisfactory for the self-contained
gear.

The improved variant of a foam rubber constant volume diving suit we used in the
Antarctic had to protect a diver from cold. Later we planned to apply the heated
suit based on a new, as I then thought, principle - storage of heat as melting
heat. i.e., to melt the ice five times more heat is necessary then to heat water
from zero Celsius to boiling point. That heat is released at zero temperatur

and can't warm a diver. There are matters, like some crystalline hydrates that
melt at higher temperatures: sodium thiosulphate (photographic fixer) at 48 C,
and sodium acetic salt - 61 C. That idea, as it turned out later, had no patent
purity - the Americans had already obtained the patents on the use of matters
melting at body temperature to heat a diver. They intended to include the
materials either into the rubber of a diving suit itself, or in a special vest
and to melt them in hot water before diving. Yet, in that case it was impossible
to regulate the degr of heating. We planned to make a special reservoir for
the hot water that could circulate within the wet diving suit. In the other
variant an electrical heater was employed.

A towing craft was to supply a diver with electric power to heat the suit, to
illuminate the sight and to operate the tools. This very tug had to help a diver
to move, and had to be provided with compartments for the tools, samples, anda
system of emergency ascent. The ideas to create a tow scooter or a submersible
were very popular at that time. The models applied in, say, Cousteau's team did
not satisfy us in full; their operation was too laborious. We needed such a
craft that could work all the season without any repair or maintenance, could be
recharged easily, and operate for 4-6 hours a day.

Longer-time diving in deep waters increased the danger of bends or caisson
(decompression) sickness. The new tables did not provide the absolute security -
the risk made up the tens fractions of a percent, but at hundreds and thousands
dives it became a considerable value. To treat the possible cases and to train a

diver a stationary recompression chamber was to be installed at the Institute,
while movable chamber was necessary in remote expeditions.

Although we meant to make only solitary experimental gear to be used by a small
team the task was very complicated. The general enthusiasm displayed to
underwater research, great number of divers willing to help, gifted people
coming to a new sphere of ocean exploration, - all that inspired hope for
success. It seemed that broadening of capabilities of a man under water should
lead to the new impressive scientific results.

New permanent employees appeared in our group - Vitali Ryabushko, a graduate of
physics faculty at Kharkov University, Vitali Letov, mechanic, and school
graduates.

Hauaso crpoutenbcrBa
6a3bl AA Norpyxenuit.

We expanded our cooperation with the divers; not less than ten groups worked
with us during the season, some of them arrived even in winter. Our compressor
supplied everybody easily with the air. We organized excursions for our Museum,
and we advised the beginners on all the questions ranged from diving safety to
underwater photography. The most experienced amateur divers were allowed to have
training in our compression chamber. In some emergency cases the chamber was
used to cure caisson sickness and diving traumas. Amateur divers rendered us
g
c
s
h

reat assistance, some of them literally burning with enthusiasm and willingly
arried out different technical and design works, and those ones who had no such
kills built a shed to store our diving gear and four hundred liter tanks of

igh pressure. A person of our staff maintained a pressure at 160-170

atmospheres, and any diving group leader could take a key for the shed and to
fill any number of scuba tanks.

£ : =

Pa6orst c raapocrarom IMMHPO. Caeza nanpaszo: B. H. Kotaenos, B. H. Baxpanes, M. B. Iponn, B. B. Boxozenko.
®oro C. H. Ps6aKkosa.

The same tanks were used to fill the recompression chamber with air; they had
transferred to us one of the first in the USSR BRK-2 chamber discarded from a
rescue ship. It was very large and cumbersome, but eight persons could be
trained in it at a time, and it was used successfully both for training and
treatment of decompression sickness. We also had a whaleboat discarded from a
seal hunting schooner. It was a heavy, ice sheathed old tub and very reliable,
although its speed left much to be desired.

Gradually a team of our permanent assistants who came to Dalnie Zelentsy every
year was formed. The money provided by the Institute covered only travel and
meal expenses. But the main thing was not the money, it was a general enthusiasm
that helped to resolve all the problems however insoluble they seemed to be.
Many people participated in the work and I wish I could tell about everybody,
although it is absolutely impossible. Yet I can't but mention some of them who
influenced our work profoundly.

One of them was Victor Vakhranev, a civilian air fleet engineer. When he arrived
at Dalnie Zelentsy for the first time he had no diving license and that was the
only case when I risked allowing a person to dive who did not pass all the
necessary formalities but medical examination. In all my long practice I knew no
other case when a person learned how to scuba dive during his first diving
season. Vakhranev could disappear underwater for an hour anda half and reappear
at the very same site from where he dived. He could dive alone and seemed to
have naturally what others obtained by years of hard training. His air
consumption under water was twice as low as the ordinary diver. Unfortunately,
not always did I understand that Vakhranev was an exception and to expect from
the others the same things as he accomplished meant only to increase our
problems.

His technical skills were not less noteworthy than his diving capabilities.
Vakhranev could operate all the tool machines, was good at electric- and radio-
technique. Vakhranev alone could design an operating model of any mechanism from
underwater blimp to a towing craft, and with minimum assistance to carry out the
work usually done by hordes of designers. But for Vakhranev many of our
technical developments would have never been tested, although in our group there
were many other engineers. Unfortunately our work together ended in several
years, when Victor had to cease diving due to a grave illness. He recovered
later but by then the time of amateur divers was gone.

Not least striking personally was Victor Iogansen, a mechanic, expert in precise
mechanical and optical tools. He liked to dive, and one could always rely on
him, although he never got beyond the level of a middle-class diver and never
strived for that. Expeditions and diving for him were some kind of a safety
valve from the dull routine of everyday life. It is hard to convey in words the
natural charm of his personality. To say that he had many friends and golden
hands would say nothing. He had finished the physical culture school only, but
from nature was technically gifted, and developed his talent by years of work
with precise mechanics, electronics and optics. If he understood the basic
principles of the structure he could resolve any problem not worse than
Vakhranev but in a very specific and different way. I met Victor as early as
1957 in a diving school. He was the oldest among us and we remained close
friends till he died from a heart attack in 1981 at the age of 51. He influenced
me profoundly, and I was glad he praised highly the work we did.

Although we advanced not as rapidly as we wished, the first improved scuba
regulator of "0" type of which I was very proud appeared as early as 1968. It
was called "zero" since it was assumed to attain a zero resistance to

respiration. A regulator combined with a mouthpiece in its outward appearance

differed little from the common gear,

alignment of two principles

vacuum sensitive membrane and an actuato
When a diver started to inhale minimum effort was

levels.

but its operation was based on the

each one known before. It operated as follows: a
r valve were connected by the reversal
required; as the

,

breathing intensified the l

been harder than in an ordinary scuba. But as soon as the
a venturi tube located in the mouthpiece sucked in the air blocking

some force,
the effect of the reciproca
the mor
determine the optimal sizes
scuba regulator. It is not

tubes where different vibra
develop, optimize,
allowed not only
but if necessary

reduction

OGorpeBaemEIi KocTIOM.

fficient was the work of an amplifier.

and try out the gear in different conditions.

vels reciprocated so that the respiration would have

air stream reached

ted levels ratio. The more powerful the inhalation,
It presents no difficulties to
of membranes, valves, levels, springs for a common
the same with the unusual structures with venturi
tion processes appear easily. It took some time to
The regulator

to zero of the mechanical resistance to respiration,

one could inflate the lungs with air.

In practice it turned out more convenient and habitual to preserve some
resistance to breathing. The diving club of a larg nterprise made from our
drawings twenty regulators of which we received ten. The operation revealed some
defects; as in all the regulators saliva and moisture froze at low temperatures
inside the mouthpiece, so in the Antarctic and below ice cover the regulator was
unreliable. Besides, during long term storage, the regulator spring got deformed
and required adjustment every 3-4 months. If that were a model of a standard
diving gear the defect would have been very serious, but it was of no real
Significance for a small group of trained divers. We used this regulator for
more than 15 years.

After the "0" there appeared ADD scuba of long range operation. The idea itself
has been patented several years before by the Italians and had simple ideas at
its basis. When aman breathes, the first portion of the exhaled air does not
participate in gas exchange - air from trachea, nasopharynx, and bronchia is the
same in its composition as the air breathed in; it makes up from a quarter to
one third of total volume. This part of air can be separated and re-used, diving
time increases due to that. The Italian design had bellows and was non-
functional. The ADD was purely pneumatic and in its outward appearance resembled
the common apparatus. It was easy to breathe in ADD and while testing it,
Vakhranev swam with two tanks for more than an hour and a half in 20-26 meters
depth. Nevertheless, the gear gained no wide popularity among divers as well as
its Italian predecessor.

Soon was constructed the diver’s tug or scooter on which we placed great hopes.
It was designed and assembled by a physician A. Vasiliev with a group of divers
at a large enterprise with almost limitless technical capacities. It differed
considerably from the already existing designs and could not only tug a diver
but supply with electric power all the group working under the water during the
day. A two-hundred-kilo craft had a front water penetrable compartment. Here
there were sealed wire connectors, different tools, boxes for the samples, a
powerful headlight to light the way and the working place. A heated suit or
tools could be joined up to the connectors. Different emergency means were to b
placed here as well: an emergency buoy, a rubber dinghy, signal flares and
torch lights. Then came other watertight compartments. A long cylinder contained
powerful rechargeable batteries with capacities enough to tug a diver at a speed
of two knots (3.6 kilometers an hour) for four hours, to light the way or the
place of work, to heat the suit and supply tools with power. A motor, starting
and control devices - a pressure gauge, compass, voltmeter, ampere meter, and
indicating neon-filled lamps were at a conic motor compartment. The scooter was
provided with two handles and operating levers.

The very first tests revealed many defects; the size and form of the screw
blades did not correspond to the frequency of its rotation, while the speed mad
up only a half of the rated one. A new screw was designed by hydrodynamics
expert A. Lodkin, and speed almost reached the theoretical one. The operational
development of the craft took time and efforts and but for Vakhranev would have
never been completed. It was impossible to resolve some of the technical
problems in the same way as they are usually resolved in shipbuilding; new and
original decisions had to be found. For instance, it was necessary to seal a
screw shaft. Usually a stuffing box seal leaks water that is removed by a
drainage system. It was practically impossible to deploy such a system in our
craft, where the least wetness in compartments would damage th quipment. The
tow craft was filled with compressed air and provided a spring compensator
through which the lubricating grease was removed outside while the water never
got inside. Even more complicated was the problem of battery explosion since
they release hydrogen during storage and particularly at charging. Hydrogen

penetrates almost through all the materials and is extremely explosive, while it

is impossible to avoid sparking in a complex circuit diagram abounding in relays
and switches.

6—6310 = j —

After several months of improvement we put the scooter into the water to check
it diving. Its maintenance and operation was rather simple and presented no
problems; we got a possibility to dive outside the Zelenetskaya Bight even when
the sea was rough. Diving began with preparation. That was a ritual every detail
of which was counted and carried out as thoroughly as the preparation of a plane
and a pilot for a flight. Technician brings the machine to readiness, while a
diver puts on his suit and gear. Then the diver himself makes a visual check,
reading the indicators and examining the running order of the systems: internal
pressure - 2.5 atm, voltage - 26 volts, compass points to the north. The diver
switches the measuring instrument to the strength of current and checks the low
speed current - 15 amperes, full speed current - 33 amperes; indicator lamps
flash, compensator is filled with grease, emergency buoy is in its compartment.
Everything is all right; the tender helps the diver with his helmet, releases

the brake of the winch, and a trolley with the scooter machine goes to the
water.

A two-hundred-kilo craft is weightless in the water; it takes no effort to push
it, but it lingers to move. One more visual inspection - no air bubbles, no
leakage, a low speed test, the pilot lamp flashes, and the scooter machine

starts going. The diver takes the handles, with bow pointed to the open sea.
Forward! The engine buzz, the sea floor starts running backwards: algae
covered rocks, Lithothamnion with numerous sea urchins on it, everything seen
more than once remains behind. Here is Probnyi Cape. Far above the wind roars;
the sea is rough, but everything is calm in the water 15-20 meters deep. Here is
the working place; I turn off the engine and take out the tools. The scooter
added us some serious problems, particularly when we tried to apply it to
concrete tasks.

The scooter tug has almost neutral buoyancy and left to itself drifts under
water with the slightest current. It resembles a dirigible that goes up or down
depending on its mass. Suffice it to take a scraper out of a compartment and
turn away to find the craft not where it should be - slowly it ascends to the
surface. I can't call it a pleasant feeling, although you know that the craft
will not be carried too far away.

The sites where we used the scooter were well explored; nevertheless ther
appeared problems with orientation. Once I decided to shorten my way back and
swam at a longer distance off the shore than usual. I failed to notice the
nearest Probnyi Cape, crossed the strait and came to the shore of the opposite
Nemetski Island. Knowing that the shore should be at my left I turned
automatically and again headed for the open sea. Only when the rocky cliffs
reappeared and the depth started to increase did I realize that I am in a strait
connecting the bay with the open sea and removed off from the camp. In case of
such surprises we always had some air reserves in scuba tanks, but that time air
was hardly enough to come back to the camp.

In a technical sense the tug was a success. We used it a lot diving four times a
day, taking the pleasure in working with it and gaining experience, but it
failed to justify our hopes as a working tool. The hardest problem of all was
orientation under the water at the unknown site, and in a broader sense -
provision of the diver's safety. The idea of a compact inertial navigation
system does not seem fantastic nowadays; although it would be a little too
expensive, while at that time it was regarded as absurd. Rescue facilities were
insufficient to guarantee a diver's safety in case the engine stalled,
particularly in rough weather. Accident prevention instructions were worked out,
but the failure of the scooter was regarded as an extreme situation related to a
grave risk. I never dared to provide the appropriate training. We failed to
develop a simple and efficient safety system, and a diver was left all to
himself under the water. Later on when we started to dive in turbid and deep
waters where it was very difficult to orientate, we had to refuse using a
scooter and dive from the surface.

One day we had an opportunity to test th fficiency of our safety measures. In
late February when polar night had just came to its end, I swam under the water
with the scooter tug and nearly reached the place of destination near Nemetski
Island in 30 meters depth. Suddenly the ampere meter read off scale; a
protective relay cut off the current, and the engine stalled. When the thermal
relay cooled down I tried to restart th ngine; the screw made several slow
revolutions and stopped. In 30 meters of water, at a distance of a mile from the
camp I had to decide what to do. In the first place it was necessary to estimate
the situation. Pushing the craft I lifted to a depth of 10 meters to reduce my
air consumption. The weak current carried me away from the bight, while
precipitous cliffs gave no opportunity to come ashore. I knew that approximately
500 meters towards the Institute there was a large beach, but to get there I
would have to swim against the current. It was easier to swim with the current,

although I went away from the camp. I had enough air in tanks to stay in shallow
waters for a long time.

Pushing the scooter I swam slowly, and in 20 minutes reached the sloping shore.
Now I had to fasten the craft so it would not drift into the sea. I pulled the
red handle; th mergency buoy went to the surface, but that was not enough. I
took off my ten-kilo weight belt, attached it to the tug and jostled it in some
rocks. Here the craft was safe from at least the usual tidal streams. It was
hard to swim without the belt, and I was drawn to the surface and could stay
near bottom only when holding the rocks. I had to come up although that was
dangerous since I could not regulate the speed of the lift; the expanded air
could rupture my lungs. I exhaled, left the craft's handles and in an instant
was on the surface. I swam to the island, took off my scuba and hid it in the
rocks. I crossed the island and swam across the strait and came back to our
camp. My friends were worried by my long absence. Next day we reached the plac
in a rubber boat and tugged the scooter. The reason of failure was a break ina
rubber washer on a transmission from a reduction gear to the screw.

In 1970-1973 not in summer only but in winter and spring a group of well-trained
divers from Leningrad, Kharkov, and Donetsk gathered with us. We dived in water

20 - 50 meters deep, and even more, within reach of our scuba gear. The duration
of stay under water was restricted only by the necessary decompression time.

Very often people ask how deep one can scuba dive and for how long stay under
water. There are no blunt answers to those questions. A diver can come to the
surface without any decompression stops from a depth of less than twelve meters
staying under water no matter for how long, enough to carry out any works. In
our group Sasha Pushkin established a diving record staying under water for 2
hours 40 minutes, while usual diving time ranged from 45 minutes to an hour and
a half.

At a depth of 18-20 meters the time of non-decompression dive reduces to an
hour. In some emergency cases when a diver is unable to decompress under water
he will have to be delivered to a recompression chamber. Depending on whether he
has symptoms of caisson sickness, either preventive or curative recompression
will be necessary. In the best of cases a diver will be dismissed from diving
for a day; in the worst - he might suffer from some grave after-effects.

In 30 meters of water a diver can work without decompression for half an hour; a
short decompression period increases the working time by 10 minutes only. At
this depth nitrogen accumulates in the blood stream and has a narcotic effect on
the brain. An experienced diver is still able to carry out the work, although
the possibility of an error increases considerably. In case of some failure of
the gear emergency ascent is possible from any depth, but it becomes an ordeal
beginning from 30 meters. Between thirty and forty meters of water lies the
boundary where scuba divers can venture safely.

The objective tests showed that in 45 meters of water all the examinees had some
mental disorder corresponding to the beginning stages of deep-water narcosis. A
diver can stay that deep without decompression stops during ascent only for 10
minutes, while in 20 minutes after a dive starts the decompression time will
consume 23 minutes. Longer stay that deep is undesirable, since it demands a
long decompression time, and is dangerous since in case of emergency ascent
serious manifestation of bends (caisson sickness) may appear before a diver is
placed in a chamber. Only some of the divers can carry out hard physical work,
while sampling, photography, and observation do not demand great efforts. The
depth of 70-75 meters is considered to be marginal for scuba divers. As early as

1959 the depth record for scuba was set - 157 meters, but to dive that deep
means to run a mortal danger.

Hossie akBpanaHrn uw mpH6o-
pbl — Ha jBa-TpH aca pa-
6oTE nOA BOROK.

In the late 1960s - early 1970s in the specialized literature on hyperbaric
physiology one could find the estimates of possibilities to use the compressed
air in works under pressure, in caissons or under water. At the same time th
physiological mechanisms manifest themselves differently depending on the type
of gear, water temperature, character of work carried out, training of a diver
and even his attitude to a deed. We were to master in practice diving in polar
waters in SCUBA to medium depths.

To dive deeper and for longer time they use nowadays gas mixtures where nitrogen
is completely or partially replaced by helium. Helium is lighter than nitrogen,
the density of the mixtures is lower and they less hamper gas exchange in lungs,
narcotic effect of helium manifests itself at a larger depth. Nevertheless,
helium has some properties that hinder its use: high heat conductivity that

results in rapid heat losses,
time increases mor
helium is expensive,

gas mixtures is rather laborious,

We also developed the heated suit.

To check up th

high speed diffusion due to which decompression
rapidly than when the compressed air is used. Besides,
technical and medical management of diving with the use of
that is why they are used in heavily
appropriated projects like the exploration of oil and gas shelf fields.
scientific exploration good old air is still

In

the only real choice.

idea we mad

an operating

model out of a used suit - glued to the back a thick foam rubber knapsack and

provided the suit with pipes and a hand-p
rubber bottles filled with sodium acetate

placed in a knapsack before diving.

absorbs heat discharged at its solidifica

ump to ci

tate
We

Sodium ace
tion.

and failed to notice that there was a hole in
Everything went well until
the melted down salt floated along my bac
suit I burnt my back to blisters. Yet tha
Later on we started to use accesso

test the suit.

one varian
electrical
whole the tests wer
than an hour, but
the practical use of
complicated; prepa
when on su
heated suits we
with hot water
and supplied th
sleeves. Large quanti
serviceable. In space
of heat-transfer medium,
new generation
improved. More
are sufficient
shallow waters

the gear.

re
is

CES

to jus
that a

Having got our gear improved and recomp
tegy for diving in more

technical tasks to b
of the works as concerns their scientific value.

devise the stra
the diving and

successful,

The

of diving suits. No doub

re common diving p

ry metal tan
t the tank was filled with heat-accumula
heater supplied with power from a towing craft was installed. On the
the suit allowed
the advantages turned out to be
design of the heated suit is mo
ration for a dive takes too much
rface a diver is very aw
ted in diving,
used. The water is heated on
rough a hose pipe into a wet suit
ty of heat is wasted, but
suits thermoregulation me

kward.

I put on
k. While
t did not
ks a

one of them.

rculate the hot water. Three

and melted up in boiling water were

melts at 61 Celsius and

found the bottles in a flotsam
It was I who had to

a scuba tank; under its load

tenders poured water in the
prevent us from the test.

ttached to the scuba tank.

ting salt, in another - an

In

the

the

ts,

relativ

In general very different
while in practice only one of

from where it lea

ter for more

t to justify
re

time and tenders assistance,
kinds of

them heated
diving bell
ks through the
design is simple and

to stay under wa
too insignifican

surface or ina

thods are based on a closed cycle
the idea worth of considering in the development
diving gear of any type can be
complicated is the question whether the advantages of the
tify its use in thos

ofa

gear
tions in

ractice.

than 30 me

resolved w

chamber, special
recompression
divers have sligh
later on more spa

tests revealed th
tables of Cousteau team. We assumed that if some of the sensitive
t symptoms of bends they will be c
ring regime will

be

borrowed from the
instance in bridge building,
the number of wor
recompression
the wo

To reduc

simula

practice of caisson works.
the duration of
kers is larger than in diving.
time for the whole shift of wor
rk the most susceptible to caisson sickness.

the decompression stops while
principally new for the domestic diving
ting the behavior of body tissues

computing necessary stops on ascent.

that worked well only after their check

found

Under
shift
In

practice -

ression chamber installed we star
te
had to estimate th
Every diver had training ina
changes in thei

introduced for

kers i

ascending we designed inst

ly easy working condi

ted to
rs of water. Alongside with
xpediency

r mental activity. We used

ured by recompression, and
them. That approach was

the work in caissons, for
under pressure is longer and
order not to increase the

t is customary to debar from

In fact, thos

under the pressur

and calibration.
that after several months of operation the properties of po
through which gas diffused simulating the saturation of tissues g

ruments
decompression indicators
and automatically
were the operating models
Unfortunately soon we
rous poles
radually

changed, since we did not have some particular sorts of rubber and plastic -
absolutely watertight and discharging no volatile impurities influencing the
instrument's properties. The diving safety directly depends on the
serviceability of the decompression indicator, so a defective instrument is of
no value. In a year we had to return to the tables.

Experimental gear was well designed, but constructed amateurishly; unexpected
defects revealed in it. As years passed by it became easy to understand that all
the hardships and difficulties were inevitable like in every new undertaking.
Yet, at first everything went well. Students and divers came and left; we
trained and diving to a depth of 30 meters for 40 minutes was a common thing.

One day we dived at a depth of 35-40 meters. Vakhranev, as usual stayed under
water longer than anybody. When he came out of water the pointer of his
decompression indicator read off scale, but Vakhranev paid no attention to this;
the same thing happened to him before without any consequences. That day an old
friend of ours Volodia Guliaev arrived and we had a small celebration party.
Vakhranev shared the room with me. Early in the morning he woke me up - his leg
was paralyzed.

The case was very serious. If under caisson sickness there are only bends, an
itch, muscles and joints ache, these symptoms usually slowly disappear even
without treatment, but paralysis and numbness require recompression otherwise
one can become an invalid. The matter was complicated by the fact that the day
before we started to alter the recompression chamber inflation tubes; the system
to feed the compressed air was unsoldered, and the last tank of acetylene had
finished. The calculations showed that even if we put in the chamber all our
scuba tanks the air stock will not be sufficient for treatment. Oleg Skalatski
tried to solder the necessary details in the fireroom furnace but failed.

We put Vakhranev in a hot bath and started to prepare for recompression in
water. Recompression under small pressure with the use of pure oxygen was widely
used by the American divers. For an hour a diver inhales oxygen under the
pressure corresponding to a depth of 18 meters. To avoid oxygen poisoning he
inhales air for five minutes. Then during an hour and a half the pressure is
released to the surface pressure. According to the data available the treatment
is efficient in 98 per cent of cases.

While Vakhranev was in a bath we assembled an apparatus that allowed changing
from scuba air to oxygen delivered from a boat through the hose. A bath brought
him only slight relief, so in a boat we went to the strait, anchored and put
down the rope with an anchor. Vakhranev put on his gear and together with the
tender descended to a depth of 18 meters. 40 minutes later I relieved th
tender. 47 minutes passed, with the most dangerous part of recompression coming
to its end, when suddenly I saw that Vakhranev released the rope and slowly
ascended to the surface, his hand and legs convulsed. We pulled him in the boat,
took off the helmet; in a few minutes he regained his consciousness. That was a
typical case of the acute oxygen poisoning; it was out of the question to
continue recompression. The paralysis eased, but only slightly.

Our facilities were exhausted. Vakhranev had to be urgently delivered to
Murmansk, to a recompression chamber. Fortunately the weather was favorable; in
an hour a helicopter took us to Murmansk airfield where an ambulance was waiting
for us. Maximum recompression regime - 3 days' stay in a chamber with maximal
pressure corresponding to a depth of 100 meters was necessary to cure the
paralysis that left no traces but small numbness that passed gradually. Safety
measures were strengthened, th nthusiasm for deep diving dampened, but the

implementation of the program was going on with great precautions up to 1972.
Then during the training in a chamber at a maximum depth of 85 meters one of our
group of five contracted caisson sickness. After 12 hours more spent in a
chamber he came out safe and sound, but it became clear that the French tables
are not perfectly safe at maximal depths and durations. Approximately at the

same time there were two cases of bends in a group of visiting divers. At that
time we had no physician and it was I who had to cure the disease. The recovery
was rapid, but caisson sickness became a serious obstacle to exploration of
middle depths.

Many of the divers trusted that air supply in a common scuba tank was
insufficient to get the bends. In reality the matter is much more complicated
Since air consumption increases with depth differently with different people,
but always slower than the pressure and air density rise. The accidents with two
divers and Vakhranev occurred because with them low air consumption combined
with high susceptibility to caisson sickness. I sent an article on that theme to
the Sportsmen-Podvodnik magazine for divers. Taking strict precaution measures
we kept on diving.

We gradually increased the depth of training dives in the chamber to 75-85
meters; all the divers passed special tests that revealed sharp deviations in
behavior. For instance, at a depth of 85 meters two divers fought over a pillow.
While running a correction test - to underline or to cross out the prescribed
syllables from the text typed on a special blank, - some changed from a blank to
the book placed under without noticing it. It is known that mental deviations
reveal themselves more sharply in real diving conditions; that is why it was
necessary to select people for deep-water diving very carefully. Only those who
were well trained and experienced and passed all the tests successfully started
to prepare for deep-water diving. In 50 meters of water I had some symptoms of
deep-water narcosis - my lips got numb, field of vision narrowed, but on the
whole I controlled the situation, and my fitness to work was satisfactory. The
effect of narcosis gradually subsided - the body gradually adjusts to the deep-
water conditions. Neither I, nor Vakhranev, nor the other five divers
experienced any unpleasant feelings in 60 meters of water. Now we were to dive
70 meters deep.

We anchored off one of the capes, and the technician and his assistant were in a
boat with us. We put on the diving gear, and I went first. To increase the
diving speed and time under water I descended rapidly pulling myself on the
anchor’s rope. The light dimmed gradually, and the pointer of a depth-meter

gauge read the scale - 30, 40, 50 meters. I lingered and looked around. The eyes
had not yet adjusted to darkness; to the depth went the running-off line, above
Vakhranev descended. Neither bottom nor the surface were seen, I descended mor
slowly.

Suddenly something changed - my head seemed broken in pieces. Not a single
thought was left, not a sense of who I was or where I was, not a feeling of
danger or will. That might be the feeling of a mentally diseased person, whose
consciousness is not any more an integral whole. Finally there appeared a
thought that if I ascended I would be safe. I started to pull up and suddenly
came to my senses. My depth gauge showed 65 meters. Then Vakhranev came, passing
me and disappearing into the darkness at the bottom. I realized that if I came
to the surface I would be safe, but leaving Vakhranev without assistance is
subject to danger. Nevertheless, the very thought about the depth horrified me
unspeakably, since nothing could be compared to the fear of losing one's mind as
I just experienced. Very slowly I went down again and as the eyes adjusted to
the darkness I distinguished the anchor at the bottom. Vakhranev was nowhere to

be seen, but I simply could not make myself come to the bottom and search for
him. For some time I hung, holding onto the line, then coming up to the surface.

The outcome of the dive depended on Vakhranev alone. Air bubbles danced on the
surface witnessing that he breathes. Having carried out the program in full he
came back from the depth of 75 meters. He was rather gloomy and said only that
it would be better not to dive so deep. Up to now I do not know what he felt
that deep. It was obvious that we approached the limit behind which the coming
back to the surface is governed by the rule of chance.

I never dived deeper than 60 meters and seldom descended to more than 45 meters
of water. In the long run the same diving limits were adopted as safe for scuba
divers. Maurice Fargues in Cousteau's team was lost at a depth of 120 meters;
maximum depth of scuba diving gradually reduced to 42 meters to increase later
to 60 meters again. One can't affirm firmly that one can't dive deeper, but it
is impossible to foresee the outcome of such a dive, as well as how a diver,
even the most experienced one would behave. Nowadays the divers associations do
not recommend to dive deeper than 40-45 meters, although diving to 60 meters is
not forbidden. While carrying out our programs - rather venturesome as they
were, we, nevertheless, lost not a single man. We knew from practice and sensed
intuitively how to do our best while under water. Although the gear we developed
was far from being perfect the fact that in 15-20 years it was improved only in
some details testifies on its rather high quality. Nevertheless, in years to
follow diving was not the basic means of our research.

MORE SCIENCE

The other side of our activity, less romantic and spectacular, but probably more
important was the development of the technical means of underwater scientific
research. The first steps aimed at the study of shallow bottom communities have
already been made. I was particularly interested in interaction between the
bottom algae and animals. That is only a small part of a large link connecting
the plants producing organic matter due to the energy of direct sunlight and the
animals that feed on them.

The greatest authority in marine hydrobiology Academician Lev Zenkevich
expressed his opinion that animals feeding on algae are not as numerous in the
sea as herbivores on land, - the plants perish, convert to detritus and mainly
in such a way are consumed by the bottom dwellers. There are no animals
comparable to the ruminants in the sea - manatees and dugongs are very rare,

whil their relatives, the sea cows were exterminated as early as the eighteenth
century. When mass penetration to the underwater realm started the divers found
sea urchins abundant on rocky bottoms of all the seas in temperate zone - near

the Barents Sea shores, all over the North Atlantic, in the Pacific, in many
other places. The sea urchins have been known long before and were consumed in
the countries of South Europe, but their mass distribution on large areas was
seldom mentioned in literature. In 1958 the English biologist G. R. Forster was
the first to notice that sea urchins while creeping along the bottom left a
strip cleared from algae - phenomenon often observed in aquaria but never
attracting anybody's attention. In the English Channel off Plymouth where
Forster made his observations the sea floor is sandy with occasional rocks and
sea urchins were not numerous, but near Murman their number reached 200 per
square meter. For ten years our team studied both the distribution of sea
urchins and their biology, very closely related to the algae.

Sea urchins belong to the Echinodermata, a particular type of invertebrate found
only in the sea. There are som ight hundred types of regular sea urchins
(there exist also asymmetrical or irregular sea urchins) in the world ocean. The
body of almost all the urchins is covered with round or oval shell provided with
numerous needles and sprouts. Unlike all the other animals the Echinodermata
control their needles and sprouts not by separate muscles but a special system
based on hydraulic principle: a muscle pumps water filling the body cavity and
in its composition close to seawater. Needles and sprouts serve for movement and
carry out many other functions. In the under body there is a mouth surrounded by
five teeth; the sea urchin uses them to rub the algae off the rocks. The
crawling sea urchin clears the sea floor from everything alive leaving only
inedible calcareous algae with hard skeleton behind. Although urchins can eat
anything, even the rotten fish, they feed on all kinds of algae mainly - from
unicellular algae almost indistinguishable on the boulders to enormous oar weed.
Sea urchins can live in aquarium for a long time eating potato, carrots, and
even spaghetti. Nevertheless, their digestiv nzymes, whole body structure and
its biochemistry are closely related to the sustenance on algae, and so far
nobody managed to get sea urchins spawned in aquarium not fed by marine algae.

Since the urchin leaves behind it a clear strip of bottom it presents no
difficulties to make a mathematical model of benthic surface clearance. It is
more complicated to fill that model with concrete substance; one should know the
quantity of urchins at different depth, the relation between the urchins of
different age groups, speed of their motion when they feed and simply move from
one place to another, to determine their age, the speed of their growth and many
other variables. To obtain the initial data two students of the Leningrad
University V. Pogrebov and V. Tarasov and I had to conduct field and

expe

weighed them,

the data obtained wer

determined their age,

count that in shallow wate
the whole sea floor every few days.

clea

gen

nevertheless,
models;
very
frequent when adult
numerous,
Lithothamnion cavities.

the factors

red sea floor is immediately
appearing in a few days;

that a
important role in the sea urchins distribution.
urchins devour their own fry - where
juniors are found only

Less ligh

yet sea urchins feas
urchins, and more ab

t on small o
undant and diverse is the epifauna.

Only calcareous algae are abundant here.

rimental works for a number of years. We counted and collected the urchins,
labeled them and traced thei
ralized in models and formulas,
rs where sea urchins are so numerous that

r movements. All
and we managed to
they clear

The

colonized by bacteria and microscopic algae,

Fo

in shelters among kelp
t penetrates deep wat

other organisms are not numerous.
turned out to be much more complicated then all ou
re hard or impossible to coun

The reality,

r schemes and
and to measure play
instance, it is

adult urchins are

rhizoids and

s, algae grew slowly,

ganisms. Deeper in th

water

is related to
plankton at th

the fact that larvae of
moment settled

the bot

those inverteb
tom cleared off

rate tha

by

under the most
particularly a

shift the natu
development of
and their rela
interaction b

tions to
n th

favorable conditions sea urchins never
t the wave breaking areas.
while the storms tear them off

th

In
algae we
sea anima

CW

were published in the Annals of the Mu

journal

They can't £

popula
d wh

less sea

large extent that

t are abundant in
urchins. But even
te the whole bottom,

To a

the

e bot

ls and plants.

tom to deep waters.
ral balance to the increased growth of algae s
the urchins. this country the study of sea urchins'
re of interest mainly from the point of view of
The results of our obse
rmansk Marine Biology Institute

published in a small number of copies and hardly known abroad.

n the sea is rough,
us, frequent storms
uppressing the mass
biology

Th

rvations
-a

The data
urchins

should be taken into consideration in algae cultivation,

usually never cause any serious troubles in the White Sea and the Far

seas.

Things are different in Canada,
thousand tons a year and wher

inhabiting the Barents Sea is abundant.
ucts like alginates,

industrial prod

th

sam

although sea

Eastern

where seaweed production makes up hundred
species of sea urchin as the one

In Canada they produce from kelp some
mannitols and some others.

The role of sea

urchins as rivals of humans attracted the attention of the Canadian scientists;
they contributed much to the understanding of the interaction of the animals and

algae. When in

harvested. They
Kelps were not

fight the sea urchins.

employed but only on small
change under the influence

feed on the kelps lef
reproducing
population was sea urchins.

proper
Consi
One

nothing to do with human plague)

their mass ex

urchins resulting in
(innocuous for men)

starts acting when wa

was extracted
in the body at low temperatures fo

areas. In
of new fac
star

areas wher

the late 1960s - early 1970s the study began it turned out that
sea urchins spawned in enormous quantities at th

kelps wer

ly;
derable means wer

tinction.
from the sea urchins’

develop,
infections some sea u
the following outburs
sea urchins,

ter temperatur
get into water and spread
rchins survive,
t of algae makes conditions for the mass distribution of

and the cycle repeats from the beginning. For long years one of the
working premises of ecology was the assumption on population stability,

the infection.
the diseas

t and microscopic algae on the sea floor.
the bottom was bare,
allotted to develop ways to
of them - spreading of quicklime on the bottom was
the 1980s the natural balance started to
tors unknown before. Black plague
ted to spread among the population of sea
Some pathogenic microorganism
tissues.
r no matter how long causing no disease,
rises to 15-18 Celsius when microbes
But even in the worst of
subsides,

and its only

(that has

It is preserved
and

finding no carriers;

but the

above case is an example of variation process in which the populations of

neither sea urchins,

nor algae are in balance.

Another trend in our activity with the inviting prospects for development was

the study of
the whole is
determine th
conservation were voiced in ancient times,
last century the precise concept of energy
of general concepts and ways of measuremen
known by that time in motion,
The notion of energy penetrated science wi
passion was so high that Julius Robert von

formulate the notion was locked up for seve

law of conservation of energy, or the firs

energy balance by the sea animals and their communities.
in constant search for the universal measures and indicators to
direction and rate of different processes.

heat exchange,

supplemented with the statistical and probabilistic premises,

Science on

The ideas of energy
but only in the second half of the
was established It united in a system
t all the numerous forces already
chemical and electrical processes.
th great difficulties and the heat of
Mayer who was among the first to

ral years in a lunatic asylum. The
law of thermodynamics had to be
so-called the
tion of

second law; in nature there are heat absorption processes like dissolu
many substances. Thermodynamic concepts -

quantitative determination of the possibility of any processes,

almost nothing about their rate, their intermediate products,

ways. This is a foundation of modern science,

structure.

the twentieth century the biological

the foundation of any science - allow
but they say

or the concrete
but far from being its whole

sciences

s early as the second quarter of
tudying natural processes felt a pressing

oon PB

rominent scientists in this count
(Vinberg) and Eugene Odum applied
systems. Alongside the well-known and long
biomass, they suggested measuremen
systems.
on both land and sea communities,

not something new,
description that was a giant step forward.

sense.

nite and make compatible and comparable eno
ry and the
the energy

thermodynamics with their precise functions to describ
biological systems obey the laws of physics and chemist
In a great number of cases not all th

need in generalizing concepts able to
rmous descriptive materials. The
USA professors Georgi G. Winberg
concept to complex ecological

studied indicators of quantity and

t of energy flux in all possible biological

Eugene Odum and his followers carried out a great number of researches
including
sciences including biochemistry and physiology that quan
but in ecology that before that usually restricted itself to

the coral reef. For many biological
titative approach was
Unlike physics, chemistry and

the processes, large
ry but only in general
thermodynamic energy is

accessibl

used in life processes
create the advantages

view of thermodynamics.

. Biochemical limitations and natural
for the processes far from being op

On the other hand it is frequent wh

selection very often

timum from the point of

unable to use the proc
burns and there are no

sses quite possible thermodynamicall
any fundamental reasons against pure

basis of lif Neverth
that chemical process.

less, unknown are animals or microor
Only a man learned to utilize it bur

heat. Although life pr
these laws is not enou
Significance of the g

Ocess

n the organisms are
y, for example, coal
carbon being the
ganisms able to use
ning coal and getting

s obey chemical and physical laws the knowledge of

nomena. Yet, th

gh to
neral

understand and explain life ph
nergy principle is hard to be

overestimated, since

it can be applied to diverse biological phenomena and processes as a common

measure.

In a great number of cases

(not always) final ener

gy processes within

the living systems are closely related to oxidation of carbon and hydrogen

substances with oxygen
water. For years physi
water animals, but it

that the removal of an
energy exchang Under

, that is with respiration. At sea ox
ologists studied the ways to measure

was unclear how the matter is right a
imals to aquariums communicates their
water measurements seemed more reliab

ygen is dissolved in
respiration of the
t sea. It could be
respiration, i.e.

le, although an

animal or some bottom
There are many ways to
to take water samples

vessel construction, a

area had to be placed under some limi
measure respiration rate, but we wer

ting cap or vessel.

from the vessel right under water, me
s well as numerous auxiliary equipmen

to develop methods
thods of resampling,
t. All the works were

performed simultaneously with the improvement of diving gear, primitive as it
was but quite usable and reliable. Running ahead of my story I say that the
results of 10-15 years of experiments proved that carefully collected and
transferred to the aquaria, sea animals and whole bottom communities practically
do not change their metabolic rates. Any measurements conducted in the
laboratory are less laborious and more reliable than the ones made under water.
Diving methods are rough and fraught with errors much more grave then th
changes that may appear during the transfer of animals to the laboratory.

Those works were related to the problem of general character connecting the
hydrobiology and physiology of marine animals - the problem of relation between
metabolic rate and temperature. It can be assumed that the body temperature of
fish and invertebrates is equal to water temperature. The latter ranges from -2
C in the Arctic Seas and Antarctic to 40 C in some tropical seas, like shallow
waters of the Red Sea. Any chemical reaction, including respiration has its
precise mathematical formula to measure the rate of reaction at any temperature.
In reality respiration represents not a single chemical reaction, but a complex
system of biochemical reactions, each of them accelerated by a specific catalyst
- enzyme. Can the thermodynamic approach be applied to metabolism and
respiration of the whole organism? The largest experts expressed divergent
views on the problem. Danish physiologist August Krogh, a Nobel prizewinner,
carried out a set of precise measurements on carp (crucians). He suggested using
a curve that upon the results of changes in respiration at one temperatur
allowed to predict those values for other temperatures without resorting to
experiments. That curve named after its creator was used in thousands of works
as well as for practical needs. Science always makes a giant step forward
whenever a new theory appears allowing to foretell and calculate the results
without any experimental tests. The Krogh curve itself was not a theory but
rather a way to generalize th xperimental data; that is why the question on
the limits of its application was left open.

In the 1950s the prominent Danish hydrobiologist Gunnar Thorson approached those
uestions from another angle. He noticed that many of the communities and
rganisms are found across a vast area from the Arctic to tropics. These
ommunities are represented by different but similar and taxonomically close
rganisms. Small bivalve Macoma mollusks prevail in the Arctic bottom
ommunities. Other but very similar species of the Macoma family are found off
urope; the general features of the community, quantitative values, and

ccessory species have little difference with their Arctic relatives. In
ubtropical waters Macomas are represented by the warm-water species; in the
ropics - the tropical ones. Examples of this kind are numerous: sea urchins are
found elsewhere from the Arctic to Antarctic. Gunnar Thorson assumed (he did not
conduct experiments) that the rate of metabolism at water temperature at which
all these similar species live is approximately the same. In Krogh's view
metabolism rate is strictly determined by water temperature. The respiration
rate of cold-blood organisms changes 2-3 times with changes of temperature by
10. If Krogh is right the respiration rate of a sea urchin in the Arabian Sea is
fifteen - thirty times higher than the Antarctic sea urchin, while according to
Thorson it is approximately the same. In those places where temperatur
fluctuates during a year, the respiration rate changes. Temperature adaptation
mechanism is rather complicated and is an object of thorough study. As we
intended to conduct some of the measurements under water the results obtained
would have to contribute to the understanding of the adaptation mechanisms. We
designed and made special vessels provided with rubber covers and syringes to
take water samples to determine oxygen content in water. At the same time we had
to resolve numerous associated problems ranged from water agitation in vessels
to software design to determine the final metabolic values on the results of

tHnoeawAQA0OaQA Owe

measurements. We could instal
took samples every two or thr
respiration rates and the siz
round the clock and included

Both the preparation and the

effort was involved in data p
continuously, but were absolu
month, because laboratory rou

1 on the sea floor up to thirty vessels; a diver

ee hours depending on water temperature, animals’

e of the vessel. Th xperiments were conducted
hundreds of laboratory measurements and analyses.
work itself turned out to be very laborious; much
rocessing and calculations. We could dive

tely unable to perform more than on xperiment per
tine took all our time. Underwater experiments

particularly in winter demand
mental strain on each one of

Sasha Pushkin who during a si
put an animal in each, and ta
him more than two hours. Each
dive; we were to dive twice o
night using the underwater to

d great efforts and put emotional, physical and
us. In winter only permanent staff worked. It was
ngle dive could install under water 20-30 vessels,
ke samples in ten meters of water; all that took
subsequent sampling demanded a forty five minute
r three times a day, dive in the daytime and at
rch lights.

We conducted th xperiments
experienced a dismal failure.
February when the sun barely

regularly for a year and a half until finally we
A regular experiment was to be performed in
raises above the horizon; the water is bone-

chilling and the sea is seldom calm. By that time Sasha Pushkin had left to work

for the Zoological Institute,
the work. On that day the wea
that, unfortunately, is very

and the five divers left could barely manage all
ther was beautiful; the sea - as smooth as a mirror
often a precursor of a storm in the Barents Sea.

Yet I hoped for the best and decided to put in the experiment since we had

already lost a fortnight due
rather comfortable house prov

to the rough sea. By that time we had constructed a
ided with a heater and electricity on Probnyi Cape

from where we dived. A headlight installed on the pole illuminated the diving

site at night and showed the diver where to come to the shore. Early in the
morning the start was promising. But gradually the weather began to grow worse
when we took the third sampling dive. It was getting dark. The wind blew harder,
and a swell was coming from the open sea. Since each one of us had already

conducted a dive, it was the

snow; it grew pitch dark, and
snowfall. The waves roared sm
danger so far, but psychologi
that Letov was unwilling to d
time he stood at the slope, w
waiting out the large waves.

dive, but that would mean tha

technician, Vitali Letov's turn. Heavy clouds spilt
the headlight beam hardly broke through the

ashing into the rocks. They constituted no real
cally it was hard to set to diving. It was obvious
ive; he lingered to put on his gear, and for a long
ith carrier tools full of syringes in each arm,

I could either substitute the diver or delay the

t someone of us would have to dive for the third

time that day, or the experiment would be abolished.

IIpu6opsi UpuxozaT Ha MOMOM BOROMAaZy.

Finally, Letov dived, and we switched off the headlight to s better the light
of his torchlight through the water. Suddenly the light went off, and darkness
covered everything. What was going on under the water surface was absolutely
unclear. We switched on the headlight and started to haul in a cable. Finally
Vitali emerged with the carriers with syringes still in his hands. The cable was
fastened tightly and was not visibly damaged. Probably under water it caught on
the rock, and one of its conductors got broken. We had no another spare light
and cable and had nothing to do but wait until morning comes. But by the morning
the violent storm broke out and raged for three days. We sat patiently on land,

waiting out the weather. When finally one of us could dive it turned out that
all the glass vessels were smashed to pieces, with rubber covers gone. That was
a heavy loss since we could get new ones in two or three years - our provision
system was noteworthy for its sluggishness. We had to put off the experiments
for months and set up an amateurish production of glass vessels and rubber
covers. The time approached to combine the efforts of the permanent staff and
the student and amateur members of our team as well as several other specialists
of the Institute to try and make some integral picture of the sea-going
processes. That would have been hard if possible at all to do that for the sea
as whole. It is so large that many of the processes - like water mixture - are
hard to study. That is why it was reasonable to choose such an enclosed area
where all the basic sea features would reveal themselves vividly. We discovered
such a bight not so far off the Institute premises - Zelenaya Inlet. By that
time our diving gear included small portable recompression chamber that in case
of need could be used to treat the bends and a gasoline engine compressor.
Zelenaya Inlet is a small fjord on the Murman coast 50 meters deep separated
from the sea by the ten-meter long shallow water threshold. Since even small
capacity ships do not risk passing through the narrow and shallow straits, the
Inlet's shores have never been populated. The Inlet lies 35 kilometers off
Teriberca village. Two streams fall into the Inlet; their discharge as well as
water mixture can be easily counted. In May of 1973, we conducted a survey that
revealed that plankton and bottom communities of the inlet are abundant, took
water samples for analyzing at different depth, and chose the site for the
future camp. On the basis of the data obtained we devised a scientific schedule
for covering Zelenaya Inlet. In mid-July, the "Toros" seiner ship belonging to
the Institute and converted into research vessel anchored at the entrance to the
inlet.

TpeHupoBka B MepeHocHOH JeKOMMpeccMOHHO Kamepe.
Cneza nanpaso: B. U. Pa6ymxo, B. C. Jly6anoi, B. T. Tapacos, B. A. Jenucos, B. H. Yepxos, B. B. Tlorpe6os.

We used boats to deliver to the shore our gear and supplies that included tents,
recompression chamber, scubas, instruments, numerous bottles with distilled
water for chemical analyses, a month-and-a-half food supplies, petrol and lots
of other things. We were eight. In a few days we set up a rather comfortable
camp near the stream. W ven had a bathhouse, with cold water supplied from the
stream, and hot water from the compression cooling system.

XosaiictBo pacter.

é

7 Tr Pes == => FA
ping =
ce in
at ah é >» ae et " a

The camp was located on a narrow isthmus separating the inlet from a fresh-water
lake. The inlet itself represented almost the same lake but communicated with
the sea through two straits separated by an islet inhabited by cormorants, gulls
and eider ducks. Alongside with the expedition program we had several tasks from
the Zoological Institute in Leningrad and Kharkov Biological Museum where

Viacheslav Lubyanoi used to work. They requested us to collect th iders nests
and eggs, as well as seal’s skin and skeleton. It was hatching time and we
headed for the islet to collect eiders nests and eggs. The number of eggs ina
nest varies but usually they are six. Not to deprive a duck of its hatch we took
an egg or two from several nests, packed them in a grass and came back to the
camp. Imagine our surprise when the next day eider chicks hatched from two eggs.
Ducks belong to brood birds - as soon as the chicks are hatched their mother
akes them to the water. At that time a very interesting process of imprinting
akes place - the image of the mother imprints in a brain of a chick. A
rominent expert in animal behavior Nobel prizewinner Konrad Lorenz determined
hat the demands for the imprinted image for goose and ducks are simple - it
ust be observed under particular angle and move. We named our ducks Mishka and
ashka. Our camp became a large nest for them, while we were their mother. We

sx 38dctd0 aad

tried to return the hatchlings back to the islet and to leave them with some
brood, but they did not pay the slightest attention to their relatives and with
desperate cries followed our boat. Viacheslav Lubyanoi who was the cause of all
these events was charged with responsibility to feed the chicks. Luckily enough
they easily found fodder in the littoral and grew rapidly.

sere
a

cae ait

0 ag

aig

Shelia

moot

Having made the camp we could set to work, bu

Our student budget was more than limited; the
barely enough to subsist on,
far from being wide. That is why we intended

get meat.
in the Arctic conditions were possible only p
with unlimited meat rations.
we
field of scallop;

should eat meat. On the thi
That was a large seal more

kilos weight. In Murman it is a very cautio
survey we found several seals in the inlet,
them. Now seal hunting was to provide us wi
in theory, from
Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Now

was time to shift from theo
animal,
rifle with a buckshot and star
and do so when sunning on the

minute, awaken, look around
approached the open area but s
according to Stefansson I had

the moment when th
hands so they resembled th

th

tha
cy

t a seal was
to practice.

ted to steal
rocks.

up

to pre

fins,

general outline of my body looked like th
relativ The seal awoke, looked around as if
crept closer behind the rock and lift

the books of a prominent polar explorer
two hundred
I disliked

but the absolute necessity to feed divers urged me to act.

and fall asleep again.

meat. I

to the seal

yet a dive
rd day a seal appeared on the rocks off ou
than two meters long and no

t one more problem left was food.
field grant they received was

while the assortment at the local food s
to rely upon ourselves and hunt to
The problem of food was so acute because constant diving and ha
rovided the divers ar
In a stream we cast nets and fished char,
re barely enough for a soup. We started to dive and the next day found a
in 15-20 minutes a diver could collect enough of that to
the expedition for a day. This improved the situation somehow,

COre was

rd work
supplied

but they
large
feed

r camp.

less than two hundred
us animal. As early as our spring
and I forbade to shoot and distu
knew of seal

rb

meters off the camp i
the idea of killing the

Seals s

hunting only

I loaded the
ldom sleep

worried,

but having felt something wrong immediately headed for the water.

both barrels and the seal fell down to th

Usually they doze from fifteen seconds
Hiding behind the rocks I
till was too far to make a good shot. Now

tend I was a seal.
seal was asleep I laid down my side to him,

I

of joy raised from the camp.
That night we feasted on seal's liver
meat is inedible sat tight in the co
persuasion to taste a piece.
words,
inlet.

Finally he agreed.
a roar of laughter was an answer to that. Next day th

seals

CO a

Taking the advantage of
pulled up the
and lifted slightly my bent legs. Now the
seal's - I pretended to be his

and fell asleep again.
my head. The seal was still on the shore

I

shot from

water immediately colored red. A cry

Slava Lubyanoi who was sure that seal's
rner and dispirited us,
"It's delicious!"

yielding to no

were his

needed a skin with fins and

any hunting in the inlet in the hope that the seals would
our meat reserves wer

food problem was resolved;

fortnight at least. Our wor
late at night. We did alls
determine its composition,

of the fresh water discharg
samples at different depth

nutrients. We dived with ph
pumped water from different
and chlorophyll content. Da
levels to measure the photo
sampled bottom dwellers to

get scallop for dinner, and
seals came bac
dived at a depth of 47 mete
appeared and followed me to

To carry out the museum's order and also to suppor

a skeleton, i

more seal
come back
to sustain

.e. at least one

king day began
orts of works:
to estimate th

nough
early in the mo

C US once more we

left th
. I forbade
. So far, our

on fora

rning and lasted until

took water samples from the surface to

degr

e, took meas
to determin

ter level,

otometers to m
depth to dete
rk and transpa
synthesis rate
describe ben
from time to

rs to take bot
a depth of fo

thos dis

water content of oxygen
asure underwater illumina
rmine the quantity of plan

rent flasks were placed at
and plankton respiration.
tribution. We dived

them; they showed no
tom samples when an enormo
rty meters.

time we dived for pleasure.
k to the inlet. Nobody disturbed

of desalination and the impact
urements of the wa
th

took water
and
tion, and
kton algae
different
The students
regularly to
Soon the
fear. Once I
us seal

Yratra ovenb no1w6nAn Choero mpHemMHoOro oTHa.

In a few years the results of our research were published in "Biologiya Morya"
(Soviet Marine Biology) journal of the Academy of Science, and reported at the
conferences. Memory keeps not the results obtained but keeps the spirit of
comradeship, common interests and aims in life and research. It was a rare case
when expedition members never quarreled or argued about trifles. A researcher
works in a real life with all its hardships and problems, very often predominant
are the relations far from being business-like. The majority of leading
scientists are distinguished for their bright personalities, and it is not rare
that the collective work for them is entailed with great difficulties. The
methods of command administration of science revealed themselves most vividly in
the past when only one scientific scholarship was admitted officially, and these
methods are still persisting. Their use resulted in the fact that in our science
the scientific criteria were relegated to the background, while they are th
motivating force in science. Administration in science is necessary, but the
common interests and research objectives are mor fficient than any formal
discipline and organization. The collective work gives profound satisfaction to
its every participant when it is carried out naturally and with mutual
understanding.

Even now I am amazed at the volume of work carried out in Zelenaya Inlet ina
month and a half. That was a lucky expedition that seemed quite natural at that
time. Our gear both diving and research ran well. Yet, there were surprises, as
there always are when something new is tested. Once I was to dive to take water
samples from different depths ranging from 20 to 45 meters. We took the samples
in large Hungarian wine carboys. According to our calculations the carboy was to
withstand the pressure of several scores of atmospheres corresponding to the
depth of hundreds of meters. Four carboys provided with corks were in a binding
with four large stones. Filling the carboy I threw away the stone to preserve
the neutral buoyancy of the binding. I dived holding the anchor line and filled
the carboys in 25, 30, 35 meters of water - routine job. I came to the depth of
40 meters when suddenly I felt as if a hammer struck my head. I released the
line and started to fall down risking to break the ear-drums. It took my time to
realize what happened - an empty carboy burst. Finally I managed to throw out
the last stone from the binding and went to the surface. The carboy might have
had some microscopic defect resulting in its breakage. We had to limit the use
of that method.

Next time Vitali Ryabushko was to take water samples using the syringes at the
bottom layer at depths from 3 to 45 meters. It would have been better if Vitali
started from the maximum depth gradually ascending to the surface, but he did it
the other way round. When Vitali finally reached the maximal depth and took the
last samples, his air reserves were small: the syringes carrier was heavy, and
his foam rubber suit contracted under pressure. Working with his fins he managed
to take off from the bottom, but the buoyancy was small, and he came down.

Komnpeccop Jasan sony 214 6anu w npayednoii.

In such a situation it presents no difficulties to inflate the suit through the

nos

,

nevertheless that requires time and air that is consumed rapidly at a

depth of 50 meters when breathing is laborious. Vitali could abandon the carrier

with syringes and come to the surfa
and tools that we
wi
never practiced i
danger of lung ba
syringes, Vitali

ce,

tender as he saw
li
Vi
need. H
appetit
Vi

looked quite well,
Despite th

Imagin

but he knew how we valued th

th

amazement of a

leas

t degr

th

case provided

ram of
th danger,

which is not correct. We conducted 10-12 dives of an hour and more in 45-50

meters of water every day. Diving was an ordinary,

every-day routine wo

quipment
re in scarce supply. The only way out was the emergency ascent
th release of the weight belt. We studied it in theory and at small depth but
t at really great depth during our training lessons due to the
rotrauma or decompression sickness.
Ryabushko released the belt...
the water bubbling suddenly and in an instant Vi
ke an enormous penguin. We delayed all the works and came to the camp where
tali was kept close to the recompression chamber which luckily,
and the incident not to th
rror made while planning the div
tali experience and the efficiency of our training methods.
was investigated and analyzed thoroughly and included in the prog
theoretical study. One might assume that the diving is fraught wi

Holding the carrier with
tali emerged

he did not
spoiled his

Later on the case

rk and

numbered in the hundreds dives during a year. All the minor and grave incidents
were thoroughly investigated and analyzed in order to avoid

Right on the scheduled day the "Toros" anchored off th
the Far North where I had worked fo

was completed. It was time to leav

than thirteen years.
Institut The thr
round assistance in research.
students who worked in our gro
to the Institute. By tha

an instant. It was almos

count on the support of

establish a labo

Alongside with it ther

t time the sala

other mor

ratory of his own and to staff it wi
insane to ask him to help. There was no

wer

Marine Biology Institute was called an institution i

indistinguishable from a biological

thing to do b

inl

them in future.

Th

kin.

station -

limited wer

The cause was a new director - the four
previous directors never hindered my wo
Everything changed. Within the
up every summer were to gradua
ry had increased,
premium rate was introduced. All the vacancies at the Institute disappea
impossible to
apply on the issue to the Presidium of
the previous di
Tokin came to the Institute pursuing fi

and

The

th his own people;
ut to search for a new job.

profound reasons. Although the M
was practically

t

th in my wo
rk and rendered
next two years

the regional
red

xpedition
r more
rk at the

all-

, Sax

te and be assigned

in

get six new jobs - the director could
the USSR Academy of Science.
rector Y. Gal
rst of all his personal goals to

I could
new director, I.
it was

he areas of wor

the subjects of

research as well as personnel and financial

facilities. On

urmansk

Ky
the

shores of the Pacific a new research center of the Academy of Science was formed

where the prospects seemed bright and p
seize an opportunity. Within the Academy of Scienc

that undertake underwater research,
Aleksei Zhirmunski, to whom fifteen

assigned me and Zosin to the Barents Sea to bring th

department and later on the Institu
Academy of Science,
dive This was a time when all the
institute dived the director and

offered me to organize and head the
since in Dalnie Zelentsy I was only
for the first time in 1968 when th

ther

ractically limitless.

I could not bu

and
yea

two of his dep
laboratory;

absolu

- the Institute occupied two rooms,
secretary worked. That time I prefe

wer

rred to initia

WwW

is

headed firs

uties.

a senior researcher.
tely no conditions for the work
in one of them Zhirmunski himself and his

te the research in Dalnie

Far

Eastern Branch

ki was a very enthusiastic
administration of the newly organized

More
that was an honor and promotion

than once he

few institutes
their staff knew each other for yea
rs ago I taught diving theory and who
seawater,
te of Marine Biology,
Vladivostok. Aleksei Zhirmuns

rs.

t the
USSR

I visited Vladivostok

Zelentsy. Five years passed, and other scientists had already organized the
Institute on the shores of the Sea of Japan.

THE PACIFIC OCEAN

In the fall of 1973, I wrote to Aleksei Zhirmunski, and got his favorable
answer; I took a vacation and went to Vladivostok. The Institute of Marine
Biology occupied a then small one-storied building and a number of rooms at the
premises of the other Institutes. By that time several marine biological
stations were set up along the coast, and field work began. Aleksei Zhirmunski
received me warmly and suggested I established a laboratory of experimental
hydrobiology. He agreed to take on the job my team and allotted some space for
the laboratory. He also offered me to organize field work in Vostok station 150
kilometers from the Institute, near Nakhodka city. Despite all the difficulties
with dwellings he promised and kept his word to allot an apartment to me, and
rooms in a hostel to my staff. The Institute's scientific council elected me as
head of the laboratory; in accordance with the regulations of the Academy of
Science having such an appointment I had every reason to transfer from one
institute to another.

B prom 3nannn ¢ 1972 no 1988 rox pasmemaaca Hucruryt Gnonormn mopa.

Academician Aleksei Zhirmunski is a very distinctive character. The Institute
from the very moment of its organization when its director was but an ordinary
Ph. D. and the future institute itself - just a laboratory, has been an
Institute of one man for twenty five years. His nickname in the Academy was
"Zhirmundiya" (Zhirmundland). My relationship with the director was far from
being simple. There were bright and gloomy periods in it, but I am grateful to
him forever for his giving me a chance to keep on my work when I was in a
critical situation, and to preserve my team formed during the long years of
joint hard labor, with his assistance and concern. Several months after our
expedition to Zelenaya Inlet, Vitali Ryabushko, I. I. Cherbadzhi and I met in

Vladivostok to initiate field work at a new place. The conditions we were to
work in differed very much from the ones to which we were accustomed. We were to

nter the already formed collective of the Institute of Marine Biology where
different studies have already been conducted including the description of the
benthic communities, and where the relations among the staff were very much
unlike the ones we had while working in the Far North. Diving conditions in
Primorye, particularly in its southern areas were much milder than in the
Barents Sea. We felt ill at ease with our cumbersome gear, and our extremely
serious attitude to diving, with detailed planning and analyses of every dive.
On the whole the view of diving was different. In our team every researcher had
to know how to scuba dive and carry out all sorts of work at his personal depth.
Things were different at the Institute. A large group of professional divers
headed by Igor Gavryukov was formed. Professional divers some of them with broad
practical experience collected animals and took samples for the researchers who
had no real need to dive themselves even though many were certified divers. I've
got an impression that the collective of the Institute was formed in two-three
years out of the new-comers "from the West", people whose attitude to life and
work differed much from the one I got accustomed to during my stay in the Far
North. There were very gifted people, there were fanatics of science among them,
but the general mass was composed of self-seekers. That was strange for us who
regarded work as the primary thing.

To achieve the original scientific result it is necessary (although not always
sufficient) to put the work ahead of everything and to find satisfaction in
overcoming the difficulties. That approach was uncharacteristic of the great
number of the Institute's researchers, with the results of their work
insignificant. "What do I need that for?" - was an answer I received very often
in response to my offer to do something. Attitude to diving was just as light;
they employed speedy boats, and dived without any precautions in wet suits. Warm
shallow waters, lack of any strong currents, and the assistance of professional
divers were the reasons for accident-free work. It should be noted that there is
a principal difference in tasks, objectives and methods of work between a
professional diver and a person for whom diving is but one of the means to
conduct research. These differences include not only professional skills,
training or experience. Our team was well trained, but even in the best of its
times it could not be regarded as a team of professionals.

A diver-researcher usually carries out his own work, while a professional diver
does what they tell him to do, and he must do it at his best even if he is
tired, or in a bad mood or form, or drank hard the day before which was not
infrequent before the anti-alcohol decree. Any diver has a right to refuse a
dive, but that is not customary among the diving professionals. As years pass by
a researcher gives up diving, while a professional dives all his life. At the
age of 50 a diver is granted a retiring pension, but usually he is unable to
dive long before that. I always deeply respected the professionals.

So we had to get accustomed to the new working conditions and relations
established. All sorts of paper and organizational work took up much of my time
and efforts; I attended numerous meetings and conferences, and drew up plans and
programs, very often knowing beforehand that they would never be implemented.
They paid great attention to the formal side of the research. The researchers
had to pass all sorts of exams, and meet a demand for volume and amount of
publications. The laboratory expanded, and by 1977, we were thirteen and could
undertake serious tasks and experimental research.

llorpymenua y ckaa.

The Sea of Japan as well as the Murman coast of the B
so-called boreal flora and fauna, i.e. its population
zone. In the southern extremity of the Sea of Japan t
warm-water fauna characteristic of the southern areas
found. Deep cold waters and all the northern areas ar

arents Sea is populated by
belongs to the temperate
o the south off Vladivostok
of the temperate zone is

water plants and animals. The Sea of Japan is far to

inhabited by the cold
the south from the Barents

Sea but it is cooled by a cold current, while the Bar
south-west area is warmed by the Gulf Stream. These c
influence the temperature regime and population of th
temperature and animals. Broad-leaf forests character
the temperate zone grew in the South Primorye, while
the Barents Sea coast. The population of the Barents
much in common: brown algae - fucoids predominate in
teem with sea anemone, sea urchins, sea stars that ar

nts Sea, particularly its
urrents to a larger degree
e sea than the land

istic of the warm areas of
the tundra spreads along
and the Japanese Sea has
the littoral, kelp forests
e€ numerous on a rocky

bottom. The similarity among the silty and sand bottom-dwellers is even more

striking. The productivity of the Sea of Japan is low

er than the productivity of

some of the areas of the Barents Sea, while the number of total species of
animals is greater.

Our primary objective was to determine what processes and how they take place in
Vostok Bay. The Bay could be regarded as typical of the coast of the Sea of
Japan. It is relatively small, with different depths and bottoms, its
desalination and pollution insignificant. We also studied the impact of the
phosphorus and nitrogen compounds on the productivity of the coastal waters. It
is infrequent that the sea communities can exploit in full the energy of direct
sunlight. As a rule not more than 0.1% of solar radiation is used by the sea
plants - microscopic algae, plankton algae, and bottom kelps, excluding the
areas of upwelling and coral reefs. Accordingly enormous are differences in
productivity of the seawaters in different areas: the area of the world's most
powerful Peruvian upwelling occupying less than 0.01% of the ocean surface
accounted for up to 30% of the world's fish catch in some years. These
differences are related to the fact that sea plants just like their land
relatives need phosphorus and nitrogen to grow. Total stock of phosphorus and
nitrogen in the surface waters are not great, since there are complex biological
and chemical processes resulting in their accumulation in deep and bottom
waters. It became obvious that although diving methods were still necessary to
perform all sorts of experiments, design and construction of different
installations and mechanisms, laboratory tests, data processing took nearly all
our time and efforts. From time to time we dived not to lose th xperience, a
far cry from all the previous years. We aimed our efforts at the experimental
study of the processes of photosynthesis, respiration, absorption and release of
phosphorus and nitrogen in the water-benthic interface. That was a new trend in
marine hydrobiology, and in the late 1960s - early 1970s, it started to develop
simultaneously in the laboratories of several countries.

The development of diving methods to explore the soft bottom can be regarded as
one of our achievements. Sand and silt occupy large areas of the sea floor, and
one often has to work to the touch in turbid waters with no visibility at all -
the reason why researchers usually prefer to deal with hard bottoms. In the
Barents Sea where the silt lies too deep for diving, dredgers and core samplers
are used. Thing are different with the Sea of Japan. We managed to develop both
the descriptive methods of research and different measurement methods, as well
as the installations to determine the rate of the processes of photosynthesis,
respiration, and nitrogen and phosphorus exchange. Vitali Tarasov was a master
of diving and working on silty bottoms. Everyone within the laboratory had his
work to do, but large experiments and tests were labor-consuming and demanded
common efforts and tight schedule.

For a number of years we worked hard, organizing the laboratory, developing new
methods of research, designing and constructing measurement equipment,
performing numerous tests and experiments. When some problem appeared we took it
by brainstorming. Brainstorm is a collective mental labor method. It consists of
several stages. First the problem and its key points are formulated and brought
to everybody's notice. The participants have the time and possibility to think
over the problem and the ways of its solution. The discussion itself -
brainstorming - is held in casual atmosphere, when everybody has equal rights to
speak out any ideas, whatever incredible they may seem to be. Any criticism is
forbidden, while any idea both original and somebody else's can be developed
without any limitations. All the proposals are written down. When the ideas
exhaust, the storm is completed. The brainstorm does not include the evaluation
of all the proposals and ideas as well as the critical notes. This is the task
of a limited group of experts. One of our best installations was not invented
right during the brainstorming, but some of the ideas voiced were used and

developed. The brain storm is not always efficient: the problem should be
subject to solution, while the participants - concerned about it.

Meanwhile grave crises started to aggravate in the laboratory. There were both
subjective and objective reasons for it. When complicated experiments performed
by joint efforts were a major concern of everybody, they were held in accordance
with the schedule established and upon the plans agreed. But as soon as we
shifted to data processing and the analyses of the results, the individual and
personal differences among the staff revealed in full. The work over the

sections of the common theme was too slow,

hindering the data generalization as

well as planning and the preparations for the new research programs - one cannot
initiate a new undertaking while the previous task is not completed. The post
graduates started to write their own theses; numerous exams as well as all sorts
of formalities and paper work hindered them from the research for months and
years. At the same time the research of the sub bottom layer progressed abroad.
In the early 1970s, five or six laboratories studied the problem; in five years
their number increased to not less than fifty. The first scientific data had
already been obtained, and it was time to study more specific issues. Our
priority turned out to be temporal and started to vanish. We badly needed a
principally different technical base, with more sophisticated methods of
laboratory analyses, none of which we could afford. For instance, for years in
physics and chemistry they employed methods based on the use of labeled atoms.

Hydrobiology started to apply these methods in the 1960s - 1970s. It was
necessary to organize a large specialized laboratory at the Institute. Everybody
admitted the urgency, but in all these years the administration did nothing for
the cause. We also needed instruments never produced by the domestic industry.
We were unable to compete with our foreign colleagues who obtained the results
and published the materials in several months, while it took us years. New
researchers came and left the laboratory. The relationships changed, a far cry
from the better. Gradually diving lost its irresistible appeal. We were now not

those fledglings who strived for diving by all means. Everybody had a family to
support, and led a life of an ordinary researcher of an ordinary research
institute. There started to appear the discrepancy between the researchers and
technical staff. The research personnel had some prospects of promotion
resulting in higher salary and better living conditions. The engineers within
the Academy of Science were paid a salary that does not depend directly on the

amount and quality of their labor. Hardly any claims can be put forward against
an engineer who left the laboratory for the construction company to get an
apartment in a year, while working for the Academy he would have to live ina
hostel room with all his family and wait for ten years at least to change it to
a tiny flat. Under the situation I had nothing to do but make the staff to carry
out the works in which they were not interested. They did what they were
ordered, but the crisis aggravated. The principle "What do I need that for?"
started to penetrate our own work. All went on its way, there were not any
formal and obvious grounds to worry. Nevertheless, to change the situation some
exclusive measures would be necessary like top overhaul of the laboratory and
maybe the Institute. It was hard if possible to do. Then researchers started to
leave. The laboratory reduced and reminded of an orchid that still gives fruits

but nobody cares to plant young trees in it.

It became obvious that a new scientific approach is necessary to organize the
research, to formulate the objectives, to search for the means and methods of
their implementation. The way out was to reduce the research themes, to
concentrate th fforts on the narrow issues thus ensuring high quality of
study. Diving was to become an auxiliary method to supply the material for the
laboratory experiments and analysis. The process, nevertheless, was delayed for

a number of years by the initiated exploration of the tropical seas.

TROPICS

Russia has no tropical seas as well as no tradition of their exploration. Yet,
the Russian zoologists and botanists frequently visited Indo-China before the
revolution. In 1889 the Academy of Science was awarded a special grant for
research in the Ceylon botanical gardens. A. Krasnov, V. Arnoldi, and K. Davydov
wrote about the coral reefs and their dwellers of Indonesia and Indo-China. Is
there a need in research of these remote seas?

There is a sole answer to the question: yes, we need them both from the
practical and theoretical points of view; more than that, we cannot do without
them. One cannot work out a theory of biological productivity in the sea without
a study of its richest and in many respects most productive areas. The practical
aspects of research are not less important. Paradoxical, but true it is that
both in this country and in the world the number of experts in fossil corals
several times exceed the number of specialists in modern ones. The reasons are
simple and purely practical: fossil corals whose skeletons are well preserved in
geological sediments are the basis to determine the age of the oil bearing
layers and their geological comparison in different areas of the world.
Nevertheless, some particularities in distribution of fossil corals cannot be
understood without their comparison with the living ones. That is why the
exploration of the recent coral reefs is of interests for the geologists. The
coral reef is a unique biological object typical for the tropical seas only.
Yet, the exploration of these seas does not study only the corals.

There is nothing like a tropical coral reef, their diversity and beauty is
striking even for an outside observer, but excluding some relatively small areas
the greater part of the bottom in the tropical seas is sand or silt deprived of
corals. The productivity here is determined by the processes occurring in water
or in the water-benthic interface. These processes occurring in the tropical
seas are not so well studied as off Europe and the Northern America. They are
not as unusual as the processes in the coral reefs, and are accessible only for
th xplorers equipped with special devices. High water temperature, strong
solar radiation, and peculiar populations including microorganisms result in the
fact that some invisible processes proceed in a rather different way than we
observed in temperate seas. More than that, some of the scientists consider that
our very fundamental theoretical knowledge of vital processes occurring at sea
are based on our study of temperate zone seas and will require revision after
the research of the tropical marine areas. For the first time the Soviet
biologists pursued the thorough study of tropical waters off Cuba in 1972. The
Cuban expedition was narrow and specialized. Studied were biologically active
substances extracted from the sea plants and animals, and described were th

reef communities and coral dwellers, sea cucumbers in particular. Moscow-based
Institute of Oceanology, the USSR AS, had planned four expeditions to the
Pacific islands of which only one was carried out (1971).

The present day study of the reefs is impossible without the wide use of diving
gear. At that time the Institute had established its diving station in
Gelendzhik where underwater habitats of "Chernomor" type were designed and
tested. It presented no problem to organize and equip the tropical expedition,
but unfortunately, a mortal accident happened at "Chernomor", and all the diving
was delayed. Later on the development of underwater research at the Institute
took another course; deep waters wer xplored with the use of submersibles and
scuba diving to marginal depth with the use of helium-oxygen mixed gas
apparatuses and diving bells.

The exploration of the shallow waters became the prerogative of the Institute of
Marine Biology where the coral reefs laboratory was set up and headed by Boris
Preobrazhenski, Ph.D. of Geology. He organized a team of researchers - divers.
The most experienced of them was Alexander Murakhveri who before that had worked
for a number of years in the Baikal Lake. Later on he went to work in
submersibles for the Institute of Oceanology, Far Eastern Branch of the USSR AS.
Nikolai Ivanov became the informal leader of the team that for years preserved
its name of "Muriki" (after Murakhveri). Muriki paid little attention to the
safety measures while diving; their attitude to it was lighter than in our team.
Yet, Muriki worked well in the Kuril Islands and went on many tropical
expeditions. B. Preobrazhenski's research program came to the exploration of the
underwater reef landscapes and the conditions of their formation, while our
tasks were first of all to measure oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus exchange and to
study the processes within a reef. We maintained friendly relations but never
were very close. The study of the coral reefs in tropical expeditions of the Far
East Branch of AS was the primary but not the sole objective. Alongside with the
researchers from our Institute numerous invited scientists participated in them.
Justice should be done to the head of our diving staff who ensured safety; not a
single serious accident occurred in all those years. The gravest accident
happened in 1989 during a Seychelles cruise, and only with the help of the
American Navy and specially Dr. Victor A. Maquera, who supervised the use of new
American decompression tables for extrem mergencies, did two of our divers
escape a fatal end.

In the mid-1970s, the Far Eastern Research Center received its first large
research vessel - "Kallisto". This was a German-built trawler meant for stern
trawl fishing in tropical seas. It is true when they say: "You must spoil before
you spin"; the air conditioning system worked poorly, and the cabins were far
from being comfortable. All the laboratories were deployed in a hold deprived of
air conditioning; later on two self-contained conditioners were installed and
they failed too often. Some of the cabins were vacant since they were not
ventilated at all. Fresh water supply was limited and they cut it off regularly;
the divers took their turns in washing from a single faucet on deck. Yet, we
liked the Kallisto as it always was with the firstlings.

The Kalisto's permanent master was Boleslav Laptev. I happened to work with lots
of other captains of big and small ships. Laptev remained a kind of a model
captain for me; if I had a choice with whom to work I would prefer him. He knew
all the numerous instructions and regulations restricting the implementation of
different works and very often contradictory to one another and common sense.
Laptev could interpret the instructions so that they never prevented us from
carrying out the scheduled work. Being soft hearted and benevolent he gav

orders that were regarded rather like requests.

Neither I nor any other researcher of the laboratory managed to participate in
the first two tropical expeditions, but in 1978 we went to Australia as a
members of the four month cruise. B. Preobrazhenski had research contacts with
the Australian scientists and worked with them more than once. Two days before
our arrival at the port of Townsville in northern Australia in response to our
cable with a request to enter the port, the authorities informed us that the
permission will be granted in forty days. Later on we got to know that the
expedition department of Academy of Science delayed the sending of official
documents to Australia. Observing their law the Australians allowed the Kallisto
to call at a port on the very day three months after the official notification
on the expedition was received. We turned out to be in a very embarrassing
situation, but managed to find the way out. The Kallisto was in international
waters between Indonesia and Australia (the Timor Sea). Here was the Sachul

reef. Phantom Bank within the reef was discovered in the early twentieth century
and was perfunctorily studied by the "Muriki" a year before our expedition. We
had a wonderful opportunity to explore the site for more than a month.

Phantom Bank is a sunken atoll of a mile in diameter, its slopes steeping six
hundred meters deep. Its upper part is flat and lies in 12-15 meters of water,
some colossal coral colonies raise 5-6 meters high like enormous stone
mushrooms. Corals, teeming with sea creatures are strikingly diverse. Phantom
Bank now is well described in a number of books: "Modern Reefs" by B.
Preobrazhenski, "The World of Corals" by D. Naumov, M. Propp, S. Rybakov, and
many special scientific publications also.

The sea was rough, winter monsoon was blowing, and foaming waves prevented us
from diving from the boats. Nevertheless, we did not waste a single day and
dived right from the Kallisto. Water above the bank 90 miles off the nearest
Timor Island was strikingly transparent; schools of sharks and turtles patrolled
the slope. White tipped sharks feeding on fish were particularly numerous. At
first we scared them, but soon understood their habits; when a shark swims right
to a diver that does not at all mean that it is going to eat him. If a diver
stands upright ready to fight, the shark gives up its intentions and floats
away. Numerous were sea snakes - two or three species of flat-tailed and fin-
tailed ones. They came out to the surface to breathe. Some consider a bite of a
flat-tail to be mortal. The snakes of that species are not afraid of men; on the
contrary, they attract them. The snake tries to come close and to study the
unusual creature with its quick tongue. Once I worked in 20 meters depth when
suddenly someone licked my hand - that was a flat-tailed snake. The snake feeds
on small animals; it never attacks a man as well as never shows any evil
intentions. Yet it is better to keep away from it. The Kallisto's expedition was
the final time when I combined the responsibilities of the head of a diving team
with research. At that time I had a qualification of the senior unprofessional
diver, head of a diving team and was responsible for the safety of seventeen
divers. As it has already been mentioned, the psychology of professional and
amateur divers differs greatly. Knowing my serious attitude to diving, many of
the amateur divers were afraid that I would impose all sorts of restrictions. In
reality there was no need for that, since all the dive masters responsible for
diving were well trained and experienced, and could be relied upon. My objective
was to establish the order and maintain it, avoiding as far as it is possible
any punitive measures. Having briefed the staff on the safety measures, filling
in all sorts of registers and implementing all the formalities I just exercised
general supervision.

Once rumors reached me that the "Muriki" ventured to dive one hundred meters
deep. As for me I would agree to dive so deep only to save somebody's life. I
preferred not to see anything and did not reveal my knowledge. I never requested
about the details of that dive, but all the "Muriki" came back to the Kallisto
safe and sound and were not very sober this evening. The order established was
not seriously violated, and during that expedition we did without a single
serious mishap. Many of us suffered from boils. There were two ear drum traumas,
and we were colored with antiseptics from head to toe, but things of the kind
are common for any tropical expedition.

The relationships on the Kallisto thanks to B. Preobrazhenski and B. Laptev were
friendly; our crew of 26 operated like a single whole, mostly because we knew
each other for long enough. Not everything was as smooth as one could wish it to
be, I myself violated the discipline. The ship maneuvered from one site to
another and had already locked th ngine. The anchor was not yet dropped and
the Kallisto moved forward through inertia. I took a stroll on deck when

suddenly in a hundred meters off the ship I saw a drifting nautilus shell. This
large, rare and very beautiful cephalopod nautilus lives at a depth of a hundred
meters in cool waters; after its death the shell fills with gas and ascends to
the surface, drifting for a long time until the sea brings it to the shore, or
it sinks. We were not afraid of sharks anymore; I jumped in the water as if I
was in Bermuda and swam to the nautilus. At dinner Boleslav Georgievich said to
me: "Mikhail Vladimirovich, we were greatly worried about you, and I ask you
never do that again." I was ashamed of myself and all I could answer was that I
am a good swimmer and can dive at a port side and came out at a starboard. "Not
to a least degr we doubt your swimming or any other capabilities, but we were
deeply worried, so please, never do that again." I never violated the order, but
under another master I was sure to be punished severely.

Coop KopanaoB 21a KONReKWMH HHCTHTYTAa.

After a month's work at Phantom Bank the Kallisto called at Townsville where we
were received warmly at the Australian Institute of Marine Science; we took
aboard four of its researchers and headed for the Great Barrier Reef. This is
the world's largest system of reefs and atolls stretching for more than two
thousand kilometers. Large areas of that system are marked as dangerous on the
navigating charts. It should be noted that the growth of corals and the
destruction of the reefs by hurricanes, the washing out and formation of new
spits can change the seascape and depth of the reefs in a very short time. Only
navigating passages are marked on the maps and identified by a complicated
system of beacons and buoys. The Great Barrier Reef is supervised by a special

administration and has a status of a national reserve, but in some of its areas
commercial fishing is permitted. Right at the time of our stay in Australia
heated discussions were held in the press related to the fact that oil was
discovered on the reef and there were plans to initiate the exploration
drilling. In a number of years all the works were forbidden not to damage the
environment and wildlife on the reef. Only four small areas of the reserve admit
tourists; they are allowed to fish on rod, but underwater hunting is strictly
forbidden, as well as collecting of empty shells on the shore.

Uynecusit cxnon Ganku Dantrom.

Our expedition was granted permission to collect some limited number of corals.
We worked on Heron Island where herons and sea-gulls were numerous. Heron Island
is a tourist attraction in eastern Australia, and a small station of the
Institute of Marine Science is located here. The atolls and reefs ar xtremely
diverse and abundant in sea dwellers. Particularly numerous and strikingly
beautiful are mollusks. Unfortunately, the outward slope of the Great Barrier
Reef, open to the ocean and plunging to two kilometers remained unattainable for
us. It was winter, with foaming waves struck the reefs continuously, making them
impossible to come up, say nothing of diving. Even the Australians seldom visit
the place due to its remoteness. In Heron Island we met professional divers -
the married couple of Walt and Jean Deas. Walt Deas, a Scotchman by birth moved
to Australia in the late 1950s and changed his occupation of a builder to
underwater photography. He did not earn much and the couple bought a small
business to render diving services for the visitors coming to Heron Island.
Whenever an expedition arrived to Heron Island, Walt gave up everything to
participate as an underwater cameraman. He helped us a lot, consulting with us
on the diving conditions in the Australian waters. There is an opinion that all

the coral reefs resemble one another: if you saw one reef - you saw them all
they say. In a literal sense that is not true, but the differences among the
reefs concern mainly the numerous details, some minor and rare reef-dwellers
that only specialists can differentiate. In a vast area from the Indian Ocean to
the Pacific the majority of coral, fish and mollusk species are similar, and
most abundant and diverse are they in Indonesian and North Australian waters.
Further from these centers the diversity reduces; some species are replaced by
the close ones, but the general picture or rather the possible variations within
the reefs remain similar in their appearance. Even the reefs of the Caribbean
look like their Pacific relatives, although only one species of coral is common
for them. In tropical waters particularly striking is the species diversity and
narrow specialization. Bottom communities in tropics, temperate zone and polar
waters of the both hemispheres are rather similar, but species diversity in
tropics reaches its maximum. Four hundred species of mollusks are found in the
Sea of Japan, only seventy - in the polar Laptev Sea, while there are more than
nine thousand in the waters off the Malayan archipelago, around sixty families
of them with hundreds of species ar ndemic. The diversity concerns fish; in
the Sea of Japan around a thousand species are found, while in Indonesia they
are more than six thousand. Fish diversity in the reef is particularly striking.
Common are clown fish inhabiting the sea anemone tentacles and coral branches.
The majority of fish have a narrow specialization and are found only within one
species of sea anemone or coral. But there are fish called opportunists able to
occupy rapidly any place that happened to be vacant in a colony of nearly any
kind of sea anemone or coral. Later on the opportunists are ousted by the
species - specialists.

Banka Mantom.

Ocmotp ,oHHEIX M3MepuTerel TedeHHii.

Many different manifestations of symbiosis are found here. The phenomenon occurs
in temperate waters also but in tropics it reaches its apogee. Many of its
manifestations are hard to explain. Fish schools inhabiting the reefs usually
comprise of several species of fish that are likely to assist each other in some
way. In some cases it is known to happen that way - fish - cleaners pick up mud
and tiny algae from the scales and the mouth of the larger predator fish. There

are other ties yet to be studied. The reefs teem with parrotfish that feed on
corals. If to hold a breath for a minute one can hear the crunch - with their
beak-like mouth parrots crush the corals. Coral skeleton contains little organic
matter, and the fish have to chew it continuously. If to look closely one can
see the sand that strews from the fish accumulating beneath the corals. Many of
the parrotfish live in pairs and stick to some definite territory populated by
one or several species of corals. The relations among the corals, parrotfish and
fish - cleaners are similar to the relations among different grass and bush
plants in tropical savannah, antelopes and birds pecking the flies and gadflies
off them. Parallelism of this kind is not fortuitous; the complication of the
ecosystem and specialization of the separate species result from the long-term
evolution process taking place in relatively stable external conditions, when
the further adoption to the physical environment is less efficient then th
adaptation to other species. Parrotfish as well as many other fishes play a very
considerable role in the life of a reef; it can be said that reef cannot exist
without them. Th xperiments when the reefs were covered with a wire net
isolating it from fish showed that in that case corals decline rapidly. The fish
constantly cleans the surface of the corals from the algae, which spread and
cover the surface at first of the dead branches and later on live corals. Soft
corals start to develop, and the reef vanishes as it dies when hurricanes occur.
Nevertheless, the fish constantly destroy the coral skeletons producing coral
sand that occupies large areas many times exceeding the territories occupied by
the living corals. This geological function of the destroyers of a reef is known
to be important.

HccaeqoBanue nponeccos AbXaHHA H toTOCMHTe3sa Ha AHe.

Alongside with it, the fish communities are one of the most susceptible to human

activity component

ts of the reef system. In many countries where they catch reef

fishes, large specimens are hard to find. The poorness of this reef area is

likely to be relat

ted to the suppression of the ecological function of fish.

Particularly damaging is stunning of fish by means of explosives which kills all

the fish including

those plac

the juveniles and fry; destroyed are the coral themselves. In

s where they stun fish - Philippines and Vietnam for example the

underwater

desert behind.

Bosae KpynHoi Kon0HMM NOpHTecoR.

flourishing coral reefs might be destroyed in a number of years leaving an

Our expedition was a success,

although very often we had to follow the way other

researches have passed. We performed a number of experiments to measure

respiration, photosynthesis, nitrogen and phosphorus exchange both directly
and at the laboratory. Frequently we worked at the laboratory at
nights to save time for diving.

underwater

It was interesting to note

that in tropical latitudes such different ecosystems

as rain forests and coral reefs have much in common as concerns the processes of
nitrogen and phosphorus exchange. This similarity - and simultaneously
from the temperate latitudes - is that almost all the energy,

difference

nitrogen and phosphorus here are

matter. In

of these elements in inanimate matt

included - and included permanently - in living

our latitudes the fertility to a large extent depends on the reserves

ter - soil or water. Fertile soils of the

temperate zone like black-soil belt are rich in organic matter; they contain
nitrogen and phosphorus compounds. The soils of the tropics are poor
and can support rich harvest without artificial fertilization for several years
only. The same thing is with the waters surrounding the reef - they are
transparent, poor with plankton and contain low concentrations of nitrogen and
phosphorus. They differ even in color from the waters of the temperate seas

much humus,

where they

productivity of the nat

are often so saturated with microscopic algae and animals that they
are turbid and brown-green. Nevertheless, that does not at all mean that the

ural ecosystems in tropics is low, just the other way

round. Nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter exchanges are very intense here

even if their concentrat
tropical ecological syst

evolution,

in destruction of

and the organisms within

to each other. Human interference

i

tions in soil or water are minimal. The matter is that
tems have formed for millions of years of joint
them are physiologically very well adapted

the external effect
were necessary both in

ther purposeful or accidental might result
the richest system, since they are little adjusted to resist
ts. We carried out successful but rather ordinary works tha
themselves and as a base for further research. Since the

cr ¢Y ¢

processes of nitrogen, phosphorus and energy exchange occur in tropical waters

rapidly and at low concentra
improve the methods of measu

tions of organic matter and nutrients we saw ways to
rement. The use of the closed vessels is not the

best way to study such dynamic systems as the tropical ones; it was necessary to

convert to the use of flow-t
hours to minutes. What has b

hrough systems to reduce the exposure time from
een done was a necessary step and we knew where to

go. For the rest of my lif
covered with thick gorgonian
turtles and sharks. In that
coconut palms, nor tropical

Further exploration of tropi
Situation. In the late 1970s
many developed and developin
the USSR, and forbade the wo
cooperation with Vietnam. So
was Signed between our Insti
Trang. The program included
plants of the Vietnam seas,
development of sea farming.
exchange post-graduates and

Unfortunately, by that time
ship was too difficult, and
New ships arrived, one of th
basis of our biological work
for underwater research. Th

I remembered the steep slopes of Phantom Bank

forests teeming with schools of tropical fish,
expedition we did not visit coral atolls with their
bird rookeries - all that was ahead.

cal seas was hindered by the strained international
particularly when the Afghanistan war broke out

g countries curtailed scientific cooperation with
rks in their waters. Alongside with it expanded

on the agreement on long-term scientific cooperation
tute and the Institute of Marine Science in Nha
all-round research of the coral reefs, animals and
their productivity as well as work aimed at the
Plans were made to hold joint expeditions, to
scholars.

the Kallisto became old, and to repair a non-serial
years it laid idle in docks of ship-repair works.

em the Academic Alexander Nesmeyanov, becoming the
s. It was built in Poland as a research ship meant

being the head one. As a lar
was three times as large as

55-60 people. The Nesmeyanov
had excellent seaworthy qual
and its air-conditioning sys
provided with a large hyperb
demonstrated to all the visi
depth of 300 meters, while o
comfortable decompression ch
complex had medical chamber,
To dive from aboard there wa
compressed air in shallow wa
depths.

re were thr ships of this type, with the Vityaz
ge ship of 6400 tons gross capacity, the Nesmeyanov
the Kallisto, and its scientific crew was made up
was provided with many comfortable laboratories,
ities that allowed us to work even in rough weather,
tem worked well. To conduct diving the ship was
aric complex that looked impressive and was always
tors. The diving bell could took two divers to a
n board they could live for a long time in a large,
amber. Alongside with the dwelling compartment the
locks, enormous cylinders and powerful compressors.
S a special port. All the systems could operate with
ters, and with helium-oxygen mixture in greater

dation Hamero HayaHoro daota «Axazemux Aaexcanap Satunmanns

Yet, more than eight years passed from the time the ship was designed to its
launch, enough time to become obsolete. The ship was designed in the late 1960s
to early 1970s when diving euphoria was still high as well as a characteristic
overestimation of the prospects and possibilities of diving research. Few if
anybody at that time imagined how diving would be effected and what the cost
would be. The designers and engineers did all they could, but they had no
practical experience in deep water diving. As a result the diving complex in the
ship was far from being perfect. The diving bell after it was raised had to be
mated hermetically to the decompression chamber hatch. Yet it could be done
successfully only when the ship heeled not more than 3, which restricted its use
at high sea. To ensure the diving of two people in a diving bell, a staff of 25
of supporting personnel would be necessary. In the best of cases the complex
could be used to demonstrate diving, but never for the real work. On the Vityaz,
the head ship of the type they conducted several demonstration dives; on the
Academic Nesmeyanov, much more large-scale diving was conducted but only with
compressed air. The deep water diving system was removed from the third ship of
the type and was used for medical experiments on the land.

B Gapoxomnaence. Cnena
HAMpABO; HAYADHNK BO-

Aosasnon cnym6nt
MU. HW. Paspwxor, sofo-
Aas repBoro waiacca

A. 10, IWesvenno, tex
un GaporomnsneKca.

Tpenmposka pb pexomnpeccuonnol Kamepe.

Serious problems existed not only in diving.
through the steel pipes,

laboratories

the pipes rusted and had to b

expeditions aboard the Academic Nesmeyanov

Seawater was
t made it unfi

tha

repl

aced frequently. The s

increased cons

the times of the Kallisto;
heroic times

passed. The s

self-made imp
the expeditions became lik

improved were living and wor
when the divers washed from
taff occupied two-berth cabins,
it was hard to perform the laboratory wor
rovements as on the Kallisto.

the sole cock on
and food was
and we had to
One should no
tourist cruises

Ky

relations were replaced by st
years Edward Titlyanov,
expeditions.

Master Alexander Gulyaev was an experienced navigato
the ship herself that mat
tunate and unpleasant additional responsibility. We also
umerous instructions and

discipline. Yet, it was

expedition as some unfor
had a safety engineer, n
occasions, registers and
problems, orders,
organized by other Insti

rece

tutes

But gradually friendly relations and the knowledge
und and soon any mentioning
trained peopl

relegated to the backgro

Highly qualified experts and well-

carried out their part of wor
restricted by the replenishm

shopping in Singapore. Change
crisis and its overcoming tha
issues and the improvement of
chromatography to determine g
microbiological and chemical

mad about diving as we were.

the tropics,
greatness,
take samples,

some pleasant
possibilities produced no new problems.
consideration the interests of all sixty people on the s

LLC,

Doctor of Science,
He was an excellent organizer and manager,
objective was to carry out the program scheduled
He had a remarkable ability to hold brisk meetings and adopt decisions
the discipline and order was maintained by all so

ipts,

reproves and gratitudes. As compa

, Ours

k, bu
nt of
s too
t was
the t
as con
resea

K

They could dive and derived pleasur
but they did not strive to achieve
overcoming the hardships and facing
and all research work shifted to

It presents a p

almost military discip
Biology, expe

rather

rts of o

tered to

regulati
deputy heads on all po
ed to

was not the wors

of th

wo
their pers
tions of c
r laborato

very often
their collec
place in ou

echnical means of rese
tent in water, and exp
ch. New generation of

king condi

roblem to

but his p
than to unite

r and maintained s

rked in the expeditions;

reached gradually by specializa

pumped to the
for the experimen
cale of works in
iderably compared
tions, wi
the deck having
beyond praises; still
resort to all sorts of
think that from now on
or that new

take into

aff. Causal, friendly
line. For a number of

t in seaweed headed th
rimary
the staff.
rapidly;
rders and regulations.

CS;

to
th the

EFLCE
rded th

him; h

rega

ons for all sorts of
ssible and impossible
the expeditions

that you serve a common cause

em was out of place.

they
rests were
shells and
the

rrow

onal inte
orals and
ry related both to
tion inna
arch. We had gas

anded our
research

rS wer no SO

in

he danger

ground of the Institute of Marine Biology is the Pacific,

rtuni
r its

oppo
afte

perfection,

the laboratories.

from diving
and hardly felt

Diving was a means
The research
yet in 1984 we got an

to

ty to conduct research in the Indian Ocean - the Academic Nesmeyanov

refurbishing in Poland took aboard our expedition in Riga and headed

for Vladivostok. The main endeavor in a four-month cruise were the South China

Sea
ou
n

resea

i
oO

bordinate to Mauritius.

Hh G

opulated thousands of years
asture and felling. Rains,
ucumber tr

CO FOG. OU. ae

cucumber tree forest on the shore of the arid

ago, w

unlike fogs,
resembles a large half meter high wooden bo
ranches with thick leaves and bright pink flowe
fibrous mass that in the foggy season absorbs water.

rch work we were to carry out with our Vietnames

but on

administra
teresting

colleagues,

way we also worked in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean near Socotra Island,
he Seychelles and Cargados Carajos Shoals,
We saw lots of most in

tively appertained
things like a bottle

Socotra.
ith its once rich vege

are inf

Socotra had been
tation damaged by
r The bottle or

requent h

rs.

The

the bottle tree in a rather original way. They fill it wi

ferments;

they pour it off and drink it.

The thickets of

The bottle

ttle crowned with

is filled with
local population uses
th sugary water, and it
the bottle and dragon’s

blood trees, thorny bushes and cactuses with their thick leaves and large bright
flowers created a strange impression in a dry, pure and strikingly transparent
air of the island lost in the bright blue Arabian Sea and looked like
decorations to an adventure film. We found no larger animals; sometimes a lizard
glided by and small carrion-eagles set for hours on the rocks and trees waiting
for some gain. They were not afraid of men - nobody under any circumstances will
ever eat them. Corals in Socotra were enough to perform experiments, but rich
reefs were not so numerous and were found only in shallow water bays. We left
Socotra and went to the south, to the Seychelles and Mauritius Island within the
Mascarene Islands. W ntered the zone of high humidity and tropical hurricanes.

eae
eres:

C B. C. Oxmnnosnm na cKaazax.

There were two types of islands here - continental ones (large granite islands
of Seychelles archipelago and Mauritius) and the numerous coral atolls. High
islands where rains are abundant once were covered with thick forests, of which
little is left. Wide spread are coconut palms, bread-trees, cinnamon and other
cultured plants; the plains on Mauritius Island are under sugar-cane. Low
islands made of dead corals and coral sand are home for thorny bushes and are
very inhospitable. Coconut are planted in the largest of them. Very picturesque

and well known from the advertisement brochures, the scenery in reality is
rather monotonous and soon you feel bored and fed up with it.

We had nearly no contacts with the local population. Only once working off the
Praslin Island did we happen to be near the house belonging to an aboriginal
family. Praslin Island is well known for its unique species of coconut palm that
produce large double or sea coconut. The grove was in the middle of the island,
while we worked off the islet attached to the Praslin by a sandy spit revealed
in the ebb. Having completed diving and collecting specimen for experiments w
found out that the sea level dropped and we were either to wait for the rising
tide, or to navigate around the islet. We preferred the first and came ashore to
have rest. Roaming among the coconuts we suddenly came upon to a small house. We
were greeted by a host named Goliath who spoke English since before that he
worked as policeman in Victoria - the capital of the Seychelles.

Despite his fifty four years, Goliath was slender, bright and cheerful. He was a
Catholic and had eight children. Every morning he took the younger ones by the
boat to the school on the main island, while the elder children had left home
and lived in the capital. The island belonged to the cooperative; the family
rented it. There were two thousand coconut palms in the island. The work was
hard. The trees produced nuts all year round, and every tr needed thorough
care. The nuts were collected, peeled, copra dried and transported to the
cooperative. Coco oil is produced from copra, and the purchasing prices for it
are very low. Fishing gave enough food for every day, and pigs and chicken were
fed to feast on during holidays. On the whole they had enough food on the
island, but every purchase made was of great value. Goliath treated us toa
small watermelon from his garden and coco-juice that reminded us of our birch
juice. We said good-bye to Goliath, roamed around the island and when water ros
came back to the ship. In Mauritius we took aboard the official supervisors and
headed for the Cargados Carajos Shoals. The islands represent a group of small
islets, spits and sand banks. There are no permanent residents here, and hired
fishermen live on some of them catching and drying fish for sale. The islets -
many of them with no fresh water - are covered with thorny bushes and seemed
rather dull and gloomy but for the rookeries of the tropical birds.

| 2 ae |

Sea birds of the tropical latitudes belong to different families and do not
resemble their temperate zone relatives. In cold and temperate waters there ar
many plunging birds; they are not good at flying, and some of them have lost the
very ability to fly. Tropical birds are usually rather small, light and can fly
for hours even if there is no wind. Probably, in tropical conditions where food
is not plentiful searching from the air is mor fficient then plunging. These
birds can for a short time plunge into the surface layer, but are absolutely
unable to hunt crustaceans or fish under water as guillemots, penguins, and
cormorants do. Particularly numerous in Cargados Carajos Shoals were terns -
black and white, and frigates. Practically all the tropical zone is inhabited by
several kinds of frigates well described in books. The black tern resembles a
small seagull. A small snow-white tern lays its only egg in forked branches of
low bushes. I failed to understand how the bird manages to hatch the egg in such
an unstable position.

An interesting particularity of the tropical birds is that they nearly always -
with the exception of some boobies - lay only one egg. That might be due to the
fact that in conditions of severe competition it is an efficient strategy to
feed only one fledgling. Similar birds in temperate zone usually lay several
eggs that are more advantageous when food is plentiful. A large-scale research
program was planned to be held in the South China Sea. While visiting different
islands in the Indian Ocean each one of us chose a theme for himself working

over some narrow,
within a few days.

specialized problem,
Our team composed of

Kallisto we knew that coral

cells of the microscopic
ammonia,

and I hoped that the cells of the polyps themselves might

and there was a hope to obtain the result
three researchers and a diver.
personally the first leg of the cruise proved a failure.
colonies with zooxanthellae algae in
can absorb ammonia from water even if its concentrations are extremely low.

For me
works on the
their structure
The

From our

similar properties.

facts confirming my hypothesis.

I would like to touch upon a very serious question -
People who have little to do with science think that a scientist

for failure.

For years I read special
experiments that took many hours of laboratory work. Nevertheless,

algae have a particular transportation system to absorb
have the
publications and thought over the
I got no
the right of a researcher

following the approved from above schedul
importance. It is far from being that way;

ingenious ideas only 10% pass experimental test.

makes discoveries of world

out of a great number of
The greater part of

truly
works

published in scientific press are of purely local importance or of no value at

all.

the basis of which some new, previously

Only those few scientific ideas that can be proved by
unknown facts can be predicted,

xperiments and at
or the

ones that allow to link together the data that seemed absolutely incompatible

scienc

forward. Nevertheless, 90% of the

make up the potential that pushes th
ideas and experiments turned
reputation of a researcher.
published articles and monographs,

out to be of no avail and by no means improving the
He must implement the plans in,

say, a volume of

to prove the importance of his work for the

national economy, etc. As a result ther
circles...

ither never undertake the themes with vague prospects,

appeared a tendency in scientific

or to do the

work so that formal implementation of the plans would be guaranteed in any case.

There is no need to say that such an activity has little
I met a lot of people including very gifted ones who did little if
they failed to accommodate to the existing
Gifted peopl

research.
anything in science only because
system of management in science.

to do with real

to be evaluated by others and that
foibles. In that case the head of
The creativ

easily. At th

tim

sam on

very often combines wi
the research has particular responsibilities.
potential of a scientist of great value for
cannot admit the situation where every day promises

possess a personality difficult
th all sorts of

the society can be lost

brighten prospects in some distant future while money is spent at present. And

what to do with the ones -

such scientists are numerous - who only once in their

life made a discovery? Unfortunately all sorts of charlatans promise bright

discoveries in the future,
and around it.
might be inglorious,

by the others wer

and flourishing at
They occupy high and well-paid
some of them are parasitic on science all their life.
the author - the situation described is very
haven't enough experience to judge about other countries).
successful. V. Odintsov studied the process of nitrogen

present are numerous in science
posts, and although their end

(From
typical for Russian science; I
The results obtained

fixation with the use of gas chromatography. Although gaseous nitrogen is the

main component in the earth’s atmosphere and it is dissolved in seawater,

lack

of that particular chemical element often restricts the productivity of many

plants, animals, and whole ecosystems.

The matter is that molecular nitrogen is

very inert chemically and a great number of organisms can use only nitrogen
already transferred from molecular form to chemical compounds - ammonia,
nitrates and different organic matters. Only blue-green algae and some bacteria

can fix nitrogen - to convert nitrogen to ammonia.

The animals and plants

acquire the ability to conduct the process only when nitrogen fixing algae or

bacteria cover their surfac

or penetrate the tissues. V. Odintsov discovered

that Millepora hydrocorals are able to fix nitrogen and that their tissues have
six different symbiotic organisms of which only two were known before.

By that expedition we greatly impr
Closed vessels out of which we too
complex system where the use of th
maintained the optimum for the cor
designed a rather complicated expe
obtained new data on the vital fun
years had been a subject of intens
proved very fortunate. In Vietnam

oved the methods of laboratory experiments.

k samples for the analyses were replaced by a
oroughly regulated and continuous water flow
als temperature and water composition. We
rimental installation with which I. Chebardzhi
ctions of the corals - a problem that for

ive research and discussion. The results

se waters we conducted all-round research

jointly with the Vietnamese scient
Van Huen, researcher. As early as

Institute of Marine Research in th
the study of animals and plans spe
experimental study of the processe
to the fact that the basic concept
mainly on the results of research

while here there was a chance tod

ists Nguyen Tac An, Ph.D. in Biology, and Pham
the 1920s, the Frenchmen had established the

e South Vietnam, with its work aimed mainly at
cies composition and distribution. The

s within tropical waters was of interest due

s of modern marine biology had been formed

in the waters of Europe and North America,
iscover something principally different. In

the tropical zone, water temperatu
expect that the processes of produ
most intense here. Of great value
laboratory. Vietnam stretched from
thousand kilometers and the marine
the North only some coral colonies
South reef-forming corals were abu
formation of the reefs were found
reefs in Vietnam can hardly be com
yet it is diverse and fascinating.
are turbid, and salinity is dimini
movement stirs up the mud and redu

meters of water the diversity of f
flourishing reefs or are found at

penetrate. Dendrophyllia coral res
colonies, and horn and soft corals
numerous. Large sponges are abunda
urchins of a dozen of species, sea
or crown of thorns; strikingly div
teem with tropical shells. They ar
appealing was to photograph under

The growth of the reef-forming cor

re was high all the year round, and one could
cing and decomposition of organic matter are
and use were the methods we worked out at the
the North to the South for more than a
environment along its coast was diverse. In
occurred; there were no reefs here. In the
ndant, but the conditions favorable for the
in only a few places. The population of the
pared to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia,
The waters of the Tonkin Bay where we dived
shed by fresh water flux - the slightest
ces the visibility to less than a meter.

als is somehow subdued, but in just several

orms is striking; many of them are rare in the
large depth where the light does not

embling large girandoles form black and green
of the most vivid colors and shapes are

nt as well as different Echinodermata - sea
stars including the ill-spoken Acanthasters,

erse are sea lilies. Dead corals on the bottom

e dazzlingly beautiful, but for me more

water rather than collect them. During our

expeditions in Vietnamese waters, many of the things that amazed us at Phantom

Bank - spiny lobster colonies, sle

eping sharks - gradually became a part of our

everyday life, since we understood
Sea we found nothing as stunning a
submarine chasm and teeming with 1

For years the coastal waters of Vi
overfishing the fish here seldom r
nobody catches them. Underwater co
Divers are exclusively boys of 10-
or, often, disconnect one cylinder
without any filter - on a junk and
a boy holds in his mouth. The junk
the deck, while the sons dive to a
collect everything that might have
sites; the traces of human activit
lines are found everywhere. Like a

the tropics better. Yet, in the South China
s impressive as the Phantom Bank plunging to a
ife.

etnam were lively fishing grounds; due to

each the size they are in the areas wher

llecting flourishes in the coastal waters.

15 years of age. They install a compressor -
of an engine from oil input and use the air
pump the air through a hose the end of which
usually belongs to a family; the father is on
depth of 10-12 meters. They spear fish and
any commercial value. Little is left in such

y like abandoned net bags, nets, and fishing

lmost everywhere in the tropics the reefs off

South Vietnam occupy rela

tively small

a

reas. The bottom is mainly san

d; silt and

silty sands predominate in Tonkin Bay and in the river mouths. We conducted our

works mostly on sandy and
reefs. These bottoms unli
barren.

turtles. As an exception
them once off Con Dao
separa
but n

ar the shore ther

numerous and diverse animals.
communities,
dwellers:
sponges,
urchins;

hydroids,
they wer

it can
discha

move rapidly,
rge water,
sharp, and their p

(Pulo Condor)
ted from the sea by a chain of islets;
is a passage mo
tidal stream coming through it brings a lot of suspended matter that

silty bottoms;
ke the rocky sea floors in the coastal areas are almost
In a few places Fungia corals occurred,
teemed with diverse bottom dwellers,

Close to

but in 20-40 meters of wate
enormous deep purple soft corals,
and lots of other things. Amazingly picturesqu
representatives of As
ancient and primitive kinds of sea urchins.
have numerous needles and sprouts of different colors;
lime shell was reduced to small

particl

som held o

xperiments wer
and the meadows of se
and w

the straits among them a

n the

a grass

the most noteworthy of them are sea
rich soft bottom communities occurred,
Island. There is a bay in the island

e found

re shallow,

re than forty meters deep. Th

the shore are abundant common
r there is a mass of soft-bot
sea lilies we found nowhe

powerful
feeds

reef

tom

re else,

re the sea

wi
thenosoma species - one of th
These sea urchins are ver
the common sea
es in its flexible skin. For a

cicks painful.

sometimes at the same speed as a diver.

Te. Gan:

e most
y large and
urchin

sea urchin
nflate and
dles ar

increasing or reducing in size twice as much. Their n
In its diversity and beauty this bottom

community turned ou
in all my years of

When you dive in turbid wa
lifeless; here and there,

poorness of the tropical bottom communi

diversity was larger, and

objective of our work was

transformation in tropical
temperature the organic ma
the water-bottom interface,
Microbiological
round. Finally,

the leaching of tropical red soils.
oxidizing conditions in the sediment thus hinde
phosphorus necessary for the phytoplank

and the bot
oxidation at high temp

Quantitative research con
ties in Vietnam’s waters. But

t to be one of the most striking and dazzling I had ever seen
SCUBA experience.

ters the surface of the sandy bottom looks dull and
burrows are seen.

firmed the
the species
taken. Th

that became obvious when large samples wer
to determine
waters,
tter oxidizes

the pathways of organic matter

particularly in the sub-bottom laye

in the water column before it

r. At high
reaches

tom dwellers receive little fo

this bottom contains a

The

rature goes on at the bottom a
lot of iron that gets into the
compounds of iron with oxygen
ring the release of ni

particularly useful when the Vietnames
problem related to shrimp cultivation.

in Vietnam.

passes.

commercial harvest can be obtained only if they a
tiny crustacean puts on weigh
Shrimp meat is in great demand in Vietnam and is a valuable export article.
Vietnamese specialists in shrimp cultivation faced a p

fishing. In 4-6 months the

In shallow coastal areas they const
of several hundred hectares from the sea,
The shrimp can live in a lagoon even if they a

od.

1l the year
sea during
maintain

trogen and

ing results

ton. We obtained very interest
xperts requested us to resolve the
Shrimp cultivation has an old

ruct dikes separating
and install locks through w
re not fed, but
re fed with the wast
t of 100-150

roblem they cou

resolv The newly construc
gradually it dropped;

organic matter that sedimen
oxygen in seawater at high
oxidizing the organics;

ted lagoon produced a plentif
in 2-4 years,
Vietnamese supposed that plentiful food in the lagoon fo
ts and accumulates in the bot
temperature is low,
thus anaerobic conditions are created in the lagoon.

shr

ul harvest, b
rought no pro
rmed an abund

imp cultivation b

and it disappears by r

traditions
large plots

hich water
a

e of

grams.

The
ld not

ut

fit. The
ance of

tom. The solubility of

apidly
The

organic matter in an anoxic environment is reduced by microbes - sulfate-
reductants due to sulfates in seawater,

everything alive is released.

and hydrogen sulfate that is

noxious for

Hedranaa naatdopma — ropox nana mopem.

To resolve the problem we brought with us all our equipment. Together with the
Vietnames xperts we made measurements both at sea and in aquariums and found
out that there are no reasons to be afraid of hydrogen sulfide pollution since
there is enough iron in the soil to fix it. The matter was different; the shrimp
adapts quickly to the changed conditions. In the first years when the dike is
just constructed the conditions in the lagoon (temperature, salinity and others)
change sharply and the common sea animals cannot survive; even the bottom
microbiological activity is low, while the shrimp quickly adapt to new
conditions in the lagoon. Since they have no rivals in their fight for food and
predators the shrimp grew very rapidly. Gradually the communities of mollusks
and algae are formed and compete with the shrimp. That is when the shrimp growth
rate drops, their fry mortality increases, and the output goes down. We
suggested performing a simple experiment: to discharge water from the lagoon and
to pump it again in several weeks. That was impossible to do at the lagoons that
had already been used, so the Institute of Marine Research started to construct
several experimental lagoons. Of great interest was the study of the biological
processes in the areas of oil derricks. As early as the American occupation a
company discovered oil in the Vietnam shelf. Before their evacuation the
Americans destroyed the derrick as well as all the charts and reports, and by
some chance the only barrel of Vietnam oil survived. Self-sufficiency with oil
was a matter of great importance for Vietnam, and joint prospecting and
exploration of the offshore oil fields with the Soviets was held. By the time we
launched our expedition, the first marine wells reached the commercial oil

fields, and the preparation for production was under way. Our task was to study
the marine fouling on the underwater parts of the installations. The fouling
process in tropics goes differently than in the temperate seas. We also were to
investigate the pollution of the marine environment and the possibility to use
the platforms to develop aquaculture in off shore waters.

Tlognonuere KonCTpyKuMM “3 Tpy6 ”ABYXMeTpoBOrO AMaMmerTpa.

Aquaculture in the open sea unlike the coastal waters had been studied for only
twenty to thirty years. Many theoretical issues had been resolved by now, and
their practical implementation was delayed by the fact that the construction of
a platform able to withstand devastating storms was too costly. To construct
them for the purposes of sea farming only would mean ruin since they would never
pay back. That is why the question arose to combine offshore oil production with
aquaculture, or to use the platform when the field got depleted. Even compared
to a large ship like the Nesmeyanov, the oil derricks impressed with their
grandeur. Towering high above the sea, hissing and venting plumes of steam the
platform sits on its massive legs in fifty meters of water. Inside living
quarters house a crew of Soviets and Vietnamese rotating off and on in shifts.
The platform was built to withstand the most devastating storms. By the time we
started our work the platforms have been operating for two years, and their legs
were covered with a thick layer of barnacles, soft corals, and bivalve mollusks,
including the famous pearl-oyster. Silvery nebula of all sorts of fish swirled
about below the platform. One of the reasons the fish are so abundant near the
platforms is probably that the numerous hollows within its underwater structure

serve them as asylums where they hide at the first sign of danger. The number of
fish in the reefs also depends on the number of cracks and cavities, all of them
usually occupied. The reconnaissance in the area of the derricks was held beyond
the program, and only several hours out of the heavily packed schedule wer
allotted for the work. Ten divers worked at a time. I photographed the schools
of fish when suddenly with the corner of my eye I saw an enormous fish tail of
two meters span. Later the other divers said that a five-meter-long whale shark,
the world's largest fish cruised several meters off my back. Its distinctive
markings are a puzzle; with no known predators, this shy plankton feeder has no
apparent need for camouflage. In the cruises to follow the questions related to
the marine fouling on the platforms and the study of the prospects for their use
in aquaculture gained further development. As for me I never came back to the
problem.

In these tropical expeditions the processes of formation of biological matter
was thoroughly studied for the first time. The results obtained could be
estimated as satisfactory; further work was planned and only the limited number
of expeditions to the tropical waters delayed them. At the same time diving
methods of research were relegated to the background and were regarded as
auxiliary means to take samples. Out of the laboratory staff only Vitali
Tarasov, Ph. D. in Biology and I were the remnants of old days when diving was
the main thing, the rest will come. Once one of our professional divers A.
Shevchenko said to me: "You, Mikhail Vladimirovich, make a cult out of diving!"
I thought over his words and realized that he was right. There were no other
votaries of diving left; at times I felt as if I were a mammoth roaming the
streets of a modern city. Nevertheless, that development of events was natural,
and hardly any tendencies to return in the golden age of discovery of the
underwater realm could appear.

THE WORLD WITHOUT THE SUN

Nevertheless,
th

new and unexpec

Yet,

underwater research gave
phenomena nobody expected was
school they teach
energy of solar radiation.
trees and grass on
the specialis

us that eve

ts knew tha

ted discoveries wer
the most opportunity when the study of the
initiated. The surprise came from microbiology.
Earth exists owing to the
That energy is consumed by the plants - mainly the
the land and microscopic algae at sea,
t as early as 1886 the Russian scientist Sergei

rything alive on the

mad

in marine science,

and

In

in rivers and lakes.

Winogradsky studyied the sulfur bacteria in streams and presupposed that sulphur

within these microo
functions to the s
This bright conject
sulphur he managed
and nitrogen compounds.
chemosynthesis - biological

rganisms plays the role of a reserve matter similar in its
tarch in plants and close compounds in microbes and animals.
ure was confirmed when alongside with the bacteria oxidizing
to isolate microorganisms obtaining energy by oxidizing iron
Sergei Winogradsky had substantiated the concept of

utilization of energy produced in the process of

inorganic matter oxidation.

ago,

the known chemosynthetics are microbes,

Chemosynthesis was known to the specialists long

but its role was always underestimated as compared to photosynthesis. All
and up to the 1970s nobody regarded

seriously the possibility that chemosynthesis exists in multicellular organisms
and whole communities.

In some marine environments,

waters penetrat
chemosynthesis was studied by microbiologists,
attention from marine biologists.

light penetra

without the s
organic matte

un" F

crustaceans descend down,

life-giving s
floor.

As early as the last century many of the scientists conside
to be a lifeless desert. Gradually they learned us
and core samplers in many kilometers of water with
they reached the maximum depth. When in January 1960,
Don Walsh aboard for the

trawls,

going deeper until finally

urface layer,

particularly where hydrogen sulfide f
- in stagnant waters with weak exchange,

like the

rom deep
Black Sea,

but on the whole attracted little

It was universally admi

tted that

lif

when the Trieste bathyscaphe wi
rst time touched the bottom a
sampling were confirmed by
saw a small fish. Yet, the bottom at a great dep
th usually only from seve
tter to a square meter,...
shelf waters with depths of up
rine geologists who through the port-holes of
area of the Galapagos Islands in more than two kilomete

fi

wi
ma

ma

obse
befor There wer
meters long,

rela

tively smal]

the Ros

the poorer th

tes to the sea to a maximum depth of 100-200
layer where the formation of organic matter is possible is very thin,
planet scale it is but a film on the ocean surface.

Deepe
where light does not penetrate and all the life depends on the
r produced in the upper surface layer.
and the deeper in water - longe

meters,

r is the

r the dis

since the
the water
and ona

true "world

The particles of diatoms and

tance from the

in water mass and on the sea

th Jacques

the visual obse

ral tenths of a
tens, hundreds
to 500 mete

rs.

ral cen

Piccard and
t a depth of 10,911 meters,
rvations;

gram
times

ou

smalle
Imagin

t of

th

red the

deep plankton nets,
the border of life

timet

Biomass was

areas

publications are uncommon for scientific
t deep-water oasis was located close
overheated to more than 200 C

firs

to 30 centime

The

rs in diam
ters across,
kilograms a square meter,

rs of water

very names

t turned
underground

ocean chasms
special

the results of the
the port-hole they
th really reminds of a desert,
to several grams of living

r than in continental
amazement of the

the Alvin submersible in the

depth

rved the accumulation of the organisms strikingly unusual and never seen
worm-like animals sev
mollusks of unknown kinds up
and lots of other organisms.
times exceeding the usual for the ocean deep floor.
Garden and others officially adopted in
terminology. I
to vents with
(at a depth of more than

eter and several

blind crabs,
a thousand
of these

out that the

waters

two kilometers and under

high pressure the water does not boil)
sulfide, compounds of sulphur with metals, ammonia and other substances. Many of
the marine geologists paid attention to the slight temperature abnormalities at
the bottom of this region - a hardly noticeable increase in water temperature at
a depth of two kilometers in the area of a presupposed deep fracture under the

ocean floor. Several years befor

with high concentrations of hydrogen

the deep water hydrothermal vents were
discovered the hypothesis of plate tectonics was revived. According to the

hypothesis the sea floor in the area of the Galapagos Islands breaks into great

mobile plates that move off several centimeters a year. This hypothesis was
confirmed and gained the status of a theory. It is interesting to note that

twenty years before the Alvin submerged at one of the first expeditions on the
Vityaz research vessel, one of the deep-water thermometers read more than 20 C

while the temperature of the surrounding waters was the usual - slightly above
zero. At that time there was no theory that could explain such temperature
abnormality, while navigation means were far from being precise enough for the
ship to come back to that very point where the phenomenon was found. The head of
the expedition considered the reading to be a result of a failure, ordered to
replace the thermometer, and not to include the result in an expedition report.
The approach seemed reasonable at that time, since there were no means of
research to reproduce the measurement and check the result.

By late 1970s they started to employ satellite navigation that allowed one to
locate precisely the position of a ship at sea, and deep water submersibles.
Numerous geological and biological expeditions were held, and many areas
inhabited by the unusual organisms were discovered in the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans. The similar species were also discovered in the sites where the salty
ground waters saturated with hydrogen sulfide and ammonia discharge into the

sea. It can be regarded as established,

although some of the scientists put

forward other explanations, that the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia,
methane, or in other words inorganic matter is the basis of life here. Sulphur
bacteria, oxidizing hydrogen sulfide and sulphur form on the sea floor a thick
complex structure carpet - mats; these
depths and as symbionts in the tissues
number of extremely original organisms
found nowhere else. By 1985, dozens of
all of them were 600-3500 meters deep;
use of costly deep-water submersibles.
this area, later on the French and the
areas of hydrothermal activity under the ocean, special systems of deep-water
navigation must be used, and mechanical arms employed to take samples. Deep-
water dives were not always a success;
They are of great scientific value as well as costly. To best use the deep-water
submersibles a special committee comprising of prominent scientists was

organized in the USA.

microbes are also abundant in water
of animals. Discovered were a great
- 95% of them unknown to science and
these bottom areas were described, and
their study was impossible without the
At first the Americans took the lead in
Japanese joined them. To find the small

the samples collected were not numerous.

Our laboratory conducted no research on this theme. As early as 1976, V. Tarasov
headed an expedition to the Kuril Islands, and the objective was to study the
possibility of aquaculture development in some of the bays. In a research sense
the expedition was a success, but the installation of mariculture in a remote
and sparsely populated area was found to be much too expensive. In that
expedition a day was devoted to the study of the crater bay of Ushishir volcano,
a small almost closed bight of less than a square kilometer in size. In his
report Tarasov wrote that the water here was very turbid, and the sea floor

inhabited by unusual communities.

Sinc

these sea creatures were of no economic

value, the expedition headed to another site. At that time nobody knew anything

about the deep hydrothermal vents.

Now Tara

sov p

ut forward a suggestion that some specific benthic communities

similar to the ones of deep-water hydrothermal vents could be discovered in the

area of

On the whole

the scie
thorough
the obje
Professo
populati
coastal
are refe
dwellers
"some st
the litt
brown.

V. Lukin
study of
befo
the
was disc
further.

a whole,
hydrothe
to be ta
Science
oceanogr
renounc

the Kuril chain, in the si
the Kurils cannot be
ntists of the Petropavlovs

ly studied the volcanic ac

CES

rega
k-Kamchatski based Institute of Volcanology
tivi

where volcanic waters and gases emanate.
rded as unexplored. As early as the 1960s,

ty in the area. For years the Kurils were

ct of research of
r O. Kusakin.
on. Bottom communi
waters up to 20 m

ties of the

ters d

the Institute's hydrobiology laboratory headed by
He was a leading

expert on tidal belt or littoral
Kurils littoral were well studied, and the
re well explored. In Kusakin's works there

pw

the impact of volcanic activity on the sea
volcanic areas in Simushir Island he heard

rences, short as they are, to
. He wrote that at one of the
range gaggling particularly well

oral",

senio
the Ku

LA

ussed a
Tarasov's proposal to conduc

the Kuril Islands gained no support either at the

or in the hydrobiology depar
ken seriously. It was doomed
to forward funds and to allot
aphic commission would reject

waters,
launch a
with the
the labo
realiz

d the idea completely; if hyd
small out-of-schedule expedi

ratory and the Institute. A.

he manag

the Kuri
letter w

year sin
and sche

In summe

headed by Tarasov went to the Kuril Islands.
precis

expediti

Hydrography Survey Service,

the undertaking. V. Tarasov p
ed to find the ship only afte

1 Islands.
ith a request to help,

The Head of the Se
talked

result we could count on the support of Grigori Ba
he activity in the Kuril Islands area. Yet

ce in 1984,
dule.

there was no ship

r of 1985, after two years of

on with its fixed schedule,

and noted that the bottom and m

r researcher of the Shelf Commu
ril Islands and shifted to the

re the discovery of hydrothermal vents,
theme of "The impact of volcanism on the m
t one of the regional conferences,

that would be a discovery hard to ove

above organizations and no special alloca
Zhirmuns

similar to the US Coas

heard in the upper and mid-layers of
ollusks inhabiting it are colored

nities Laboratory, completed his
Vietnam coast. Several years

he suggested conducting research on
arine population". The proposal
but the matter did not go any
rch in the coastal waters off
Institute of Marine Biology as
our laboratory. The idea that

tC new resea

tment, ora

rmal vents could be discovered in shallow waters seemed too incredible

to failure -

a ship to ca
it. Yet, nei
rothermal ven

to request the Academy of

rry out the program, the

ther I, nor the director

ts were found in shallow
restimate. Tarasov decided to

t required no additional agreement
tions exceeding the budgets of
ki and I considered that we could
repared thoroughly for the expedition, but
r two years of search. The ships of the

t Guard, work constantly off

tion tha

Anatoli Roassokho read the
rasov and promised his support. As a
ranov who was responsible for
we had to delay the expedition for a
rk in the area in a suitable season

rvice Admiral
to Ta

to wo

ration our small expedition team
It was not an ordinary research

prepa

plan, terms and area of work; we

would work where the ship went. Our team of six besides me and Tarasov included

my wife

Blinov and Gena Kamenev who helped in hydrobiological

Shevchen

The expe

Louisa, a specialist in water
ko,

dition was well

a professional diver I worked with in Vietnam.

chemistry, two young researchers S$

exploration, and Sh

rgel
ura

quipped. We mad

all the necessary preparations to

carry out the necessary analyses both of seawater and the samples from volcanic
underwater vents if they happened to be found. We had two light boats with
outboard engines and could work at any site no matter how hard to reach. Our old
recompression chamber that was 15 nearly years old and was first field tested in

our expedition to Zelenaya Inlet in 1973 was with us.

It traveled a lot in

tropics and in the Far

bends. Yet, it played its role in training of divers; they became mor
underwater since nobody felt like spending long hours in a chamber not designed
In mid-July of 1985, we all gathered at Korsakov port, Sakhalin,
aboard the Taimyr survey ship to set out for the cold and foggy Okhotsk Sea. The
Taimyr was far from being new. It was built 15 years earlier to work in severe
conditions of the Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Everything that other captains
regard as impossible or too risky is everyday routine here. The survey ships
seldom settle on the course recommended for cargo and passenger vessels as well
pilotage. The task assigned should be carried out by all means; the

for comfort.

as resort to

ship sails in thick fog,

Eastern seas but was never practically used to treat

cautious

and the cargoes are discharged at shores wher

ther

are no moorage, cranes, winches or any other port facilities. The young captain
Anatoli Slugin was afraid of neither sea, nor work. Unfortunately, the crews of
the survey ships had no benefits and were paid little. The majority of them were
made up from sailors dispatched from the more prestigious ships for hard
drinking and violation of discipline. When the Taimyr came up to a port, the

t of all found out whether they sold vodka at a local store. If
vodka on sale, the ship entered the port; if there was vodka for

captain first
there was no

sale, he sent

t to the shore a boat with a chief mate and several peopl

allowed any of the crew to go ashore.

Ha nasy6e «Taio

pare,

and never

The Taimyr was not designed for comfort. Food was poor. We occupied the sickbay,
and three of us had to sleep on the floor in sleeping bags. Two tiny
laboratories had no water supply, while one of them was constantly flooded. All
these hardships were of no importance, since the crew and the captain showed
friendly feelings. We were in the Sea of Okhotsk to discover the world without
the sun, and in some sense we already were in it. During the first month of the
voyage, the sun appeared only twice for a few hours; thick fogs prevailed.
Located between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk, the Kuril Islands are
noteworthy for damp and foggy climate. Sunny days are rare here and occur only
in spring and fall. We headed first not to the islands themselves but to a small
Moneron islet off the Sakhalin to disembark the family of a beacon-man. Moneron
was well studied, and its bottom communities were very similar to the ones in
Primorye waters; warm current brings here the warm-water creatures from Japanese
waters.

An aluminum scow was used to deliver cargoes from the Taimyr to the shore. It
was slow-speed and rumpled yet a very reliable old tub. We dived off Moneron
where for the first time I managed to photograph large siphonophores - jellyfish
cousins, while Tarasov found an enormous sea star with forty arms. The specimen
was very rare, the fourth or fifth in that country. Tarasov fixed it thoroughly
in formol solution, but the fish rats gnawed it - nobody could imagine the
reeking of starfish would attract the beasts.

B. T. Tapacos duxcupyer peakyw mMunoronyuesyw avesay. Octpos Monepon.

In the month to follow the ship performed her basic task: transporting cargoes,
and supplying and maintaining the beacons in the south and mid - Kuril Islands.
We were lucky to visit a famous Krai Sveta Cape in Shikotan - a most picturesque
site. Diving conditions were much worse than in Primorye and the tropics with
strong currents and cold, deep waters (we dived up to 40 meters). The current
often was so strong that one could descend only by holding to the anchor line,
and while at the bottom hiding among the rocks and enormous boulders so as not
to be carried away. Only Tarasov and I had experience from diving in conditions
of the Far North very similar to the ones we found here. The rest of the group
quickly learned how to do that.

The realm we saw beneath the surface made a vivid impression on us. Tarasov and
I were surprised to recognize many of the forms identical or very similar to the
ones we see and studied years ago in the Barents Sea: predator sea stars of
Solaster and Crossaster genera, some of the sea urchins, many of the hydroids,
sponges, and bryozoa. Yet, the general impression was quite different -

everything here seemed ten times enlarged, and that is not the quantitative, but
qualitative difference. The seaweed in the Barents Sea - mainly laminaria and
Alaria (wing kelp) were 2-3 meters long, while a six meter specimen was regarded
as marginally large. Here we were in magnificent kelp forest comprising of
several layers. When there was no current, Alaria fifty meters long stood in 25-
30 meters of water and crept on the surface for 10-20 meters. In transparent
water 20-25 meters deep, we saw the ship’s hull surrounded by the thickets. The
impression was fantastic. The seaweed blade was half a meter wide, and the
tendon was ten centimeters thick; it was impossible to cut it by knife. At first
we feared that we could entangle in the seaweed, but soon realized that the
danger was not so great if we moved cautiously. Right under Alaria the bottom
was covered with laminaria thickets of 2-3 meters high. They looked like small
bushes in comparison with Alaria, yet their size was maximum for the Barents
Sea, to say nothing of the Sea of Japan. Below the laminaria belt the rocky
floor was coated with the pink crust of calcareous algae very similar to the
ones common for the Barents Sea. In the straits between the islands where the
current was particularly strong, the bottom was covered with a thick carpet of
sponges, hydroids and sea anemones.

The underwater forests off the Kuril Islands descend to a depth of 25-30 meters,
and some of the plants can be found deeper. They do not have enough light and
grow slowly. The strikingly enormous kelp forests found in this country mainly
off the Kuril and Komandor Islands are common for the ocean islands in the
Pacific and in the temperate coasts in both hemispheres. These kelp forests are
hard to compare with the seaweed of our other seas. The difference is the same
as between thickets of bushes and an enormous oak grove. At all the thirty
anchorages we took water samples from different depths and carried out numerous
chemical analyses to find the answer to the question what is the reason for the
rapid and untrammeled growth of the benthic seaweed particularly in the mid-
Kuril Islands. There are places where the kelp forest are even larger; off
California coast the seaweed of Nereocystis and Macrocystis kelp can be two
hundred meters long. The upwelling of cold, deep water is rich in the nutrients
favorable for kelp growth, as is cloudy and cold weather, when heat and luminous
flux is subdued. It seemed an abundance of light should favor the growth of the
seaweed, and that is really so, but when the sun heats the upper layers too much
they became lighter than the deep ones and float on them without stirring. As a
result the upwelling of the nutrients subdues, and the seaweed suffer from their
lack - just like land plants they need fertilizer. Alongside it, phytoplankton
algae develops intensively, competing with the seaweed for nutrients. Plankton
algae grow rapidly in the upwelling areas, but at a stable temperature and in
heavy turbid mixing they are easily transported to deep waters where there is
not enough light for their development. The areas of the Kurils with their
strong currents and water agitation are the most favorable for the bottom algae.
Below the kelp forest in 20-40 meters of water there was a belt of rich growth
of attached animals. Unlike the tropics, Antarctic and some other areas, the
forms transforming the bottom relief and seen from afar are relatively seldom.
Two or three kinds of large sponges and sea squirts make an exception. Low water
temperature hinders the accumulation of calcium carbonate in mollusks and
coelenterate, and shell and hard skeletal organisms are not numerous here.

Eme ray6 me KPYNHBIX OK MBOTHBIX He TAK MHOTO, HO AHO NOKPLITO CNAOCWHLIM KOBPOM XHAELMX OPrAHHSMOR,

The natural relief of the rocky bottom is covered as if with thick moss teeming
with animals that are striking for their diversity. Numerous are the organisms
resembling the ones inhabiting the Barents Sea; several Pacific species
correspond to only one or two in the Atlantic. In the Murman the shallow water
sponge colonies are comprised of only two or three species of common sponges,
while in the Kuril Islands they are more than twenty. Four species of sea
anemones are found in the Barents Sea; in the Kuril Islands they are more thaen
thirty. This can be applied to the sea stars and bryozoa, whose colonies off the
Kuril Islands are larger than in the European North; sea squirts of the same or
very similar species as off the Kola Peninsula are half a meter tall. To this,
animals rare in the north are added: gorgonia corals, deep purple soft corals,
and large chitons. Chitons are common in the waters off the Kuril Islands, and
the largest of them is the Steller or gumboot chiton up to 35 centimeters long.
Despite its large size this chiton is hard to see because of its camouflage; it
is abundant in the narrow boundary between rocks and sand and looks like a heap
of rocks and sand.

The fecundity of the waters and the islands was awesome. More diverse as
compared to the Atlantic were fish, birds and mammals. Some elements of
similarity are explained by the fact that in pre-glacial age there was a link
between the two oceans. The North Ocean was warmer, and many of the species
migrated along its coast from the Pacific to the Atlantic. There was the back
migration as well, but on lesser scale. Animal geographers consider that the
majority of the modern sea dwellers come from the Pacific, where their species
diversity is still maximum. The sea birds form rookeries on the Kuril Islands,
not so numerous as on the Murman and Novaya Zemlya coasts, but more diverse.
There are several species of puffins in comparison with only one in the
Atlantic, and auklets, and ancient murrelets. At the same time such Atlantic
birds as razor bill and little auklet are not found here. Alongside with
numerous guillemots are cormorants, gulls, fulmars - the latter found in both
hemispheres and reminded me of the Antarctic. Polar foxes inhabit the large
Kuril Islands, and the birds nest mainly on small rocky islands like Lion Stone
off the Etorophy and many others. Some of the local seals resemble the ones
inhabiting the North Atlantic, but most common are sea lions and fur seals,
which are absent in the North Atlantic. Several times we saw sea otters which
are found only in the North Pacific. Sea otters were hunted mercilessly in the
past and still are very cautious, although hunting for them has been forbidden
for many years. A sea otter from the deck resembles a cat swimming on its back.
The vegetation on the islands changes greatly as you move from the south to the
north. In Kunasiri there are groves with heat-loving yew tree and magnolia. The
northern islands are covered with tundra vegetation, dwarf birch and alder. Many
of the islets have no trees, but are covered with thick and tall grass reminding
of the Alpine meadows. July from the first to the last day was damp and foggy.
Yet, the sea was calm, and we dived almost every day. We carried out all sorts
of auxiliary work like sampling, but so far did not began to conduct our main
research. In August the fogs started to clear, and we had an opportunity to see
how precise is the name of the Kurils (Rising Fog). The fog could lift from
nowhere on a sunny day, and disappear as unexpectedly it arose.

In all our voyage it was the first warm and clear day, when a month after the
ship left port, she approached the area of Chirip volcano on the Etorophy
Island. Enormous fumaroles were seen from the sea at a long distance, and two
acid streams flowed into the sea. There was no path to the volcano, and we had
to cut the way in thick bushes. The streams colored the marine rocks bright
brown and coarsely colored with rouge, and were very picturesque. We took water
samples and began the hydrobiological work. Right in the stream mouth the bottom
was lifeless, but at a distance of a hundred meters off, the sea floor was

densely populated, and filter feeders prevailed. We discovered no new or unusual
creatures, but population density was higher than anywhere else in the areas we
explored. In a day we took samples, and their analyses aboard the Taimyr were
carried out for several days. As for the estimation of the results the opinions
differed. High population density was obvious, but I did not consider it to be
the result of the direct impact of the volcanic activity. American scientist R.
Wagnerski proposed marine bacteria flourish on the surface of biologically inert
inorganic particulate matter; such material as iron and aluminum hydroxides
settle down when volcanic and marine waters mix. I thought this was the main
source of organic matter for bottom dwellers. Tarasov was more optimistic. In
any case, further study had to be pursued.

Ha G6Gepery ocrposa Iluamkoran.

EXPEDITION DISCOVERS THE ALIEN WORLD

On August 16, 1985, the ship approached the Ushishir Islands, and finally we got
the possibility to conduct our own research. The Ushishir Islands are composed
of two islets - Yankich and Ryponkich. Both are the remnants of an enormous

ancient volcano, destroyed by an enormous eruption

hundred thousands of years

ago. The Yankich Island where volcano activity is preserved until nowadays is

on the inward crater slopes are covered with thick

the secondary crater of that large volcano. The islet is tiny with steep cliffs
that fall abruptly to the sea and dull volcanic screens of grey, brown and red,

grass. There is almost no

drinking water here. Yankich Island is vividly picturesque, but can hardly be
praised as hospitable. The island has never been populated; before the

nineteenth century a small Ainu settlement was on

the neighboring Ryponkich

Island. When in 1875 the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan, all the Ainu

were removed to the Shikotan.

z Ais

“BA MORE. 4M SRSA ERT Bs
sty? ‘J \. ae «
Poe Mi thy Lea re le ea

« ie *
esti ae ali

Polar fox inhabit the Ushishir, as well as the neighborly islands. The animals
are also found in the Komandor Islands and in the Arctic. How they appeared in
the Kuril Islands is not quite clear; they might have outlived the latest

glacial age. There is also information that the polar fox was introd
Ushishir by the Japanese to breed them and produce the fur. In the 1
Ryponkich Island which was long ago inhabited by the Ainu, there liv
Japanese families that fed the animals in winter and tanned the skin
also possible that the polar fox were here before, while the Japanes
some new animal families. The polar fox adjusted wonderfully to the

in the Ushishir since it was plentiful with birds. The food is abund

uced to the
930s on

ed two

s. It is

e brought
conditions
ant in

summer, and each couple produce a litter of six to ten cubs, but in winter when

the birds leave the island the majority of puppies die of hunger. Po
absolutely no fear of men; they come up, bite the boots, and pull on

lar fox have
anything

that is placed on the ground, hindering the work. The crater slopes
with bird rookeries of auklets and storm petrels. Auklets belongs to
guillemot bird family and resembles the puffin. Storm petrel or the

are covered
the
sea swallow

is a small black bird - a cousin of a fulmar. When the Taimyr anchored close to

the rookeries the birds were drawn by the lights at night and danced
enormous snowflakes. They reminded me of the Antarctic where snow pe

above like
trels and

cape doves filled the night sky around the Ob ship. In the morning we found

dozens of auklets on the deck - just like the majority of sea birds,
difficulty flying a flat surface. Every morning trying to forestall
I came to the deck, caught the birds and tossed them overboard.

B xparep.

Yankich Island is surrounded by rocks and small islets. Particularly
among them is Kolpak rock 125 meters high, in comparison with it our

they have
the ship cat

noteworthy
ship was a

toy. On the flat summit and steep cliffs, great black-backed gulls, puffins,
kittiwakes, and murres form their noisy rookeries. Not far from the Taimyr
anchorage on the rocky islet northern sea lions lay in two small colonies. They

were very cautious and never allowed the boat to approach them. Northern sea
lions are the largest seals after the walruses in the northern hemisphere; th
male might weight up to a metric ton. One of the largest seal colonies of
several thousand heads was 15 miles from where we were. I longed to see the
place, and maybe to dive among the seals, but the place was marked as especially
dangerous on navigation charts. Even captain Slugin would never agree to go
there without direct order.

Bona 6ypaut oT BYAKAHMYECKHX Faso.

Yet, we could visit a small colony of 30-40 heads just a mile off the anchorage.
So as not to frighten the animals we stopped th ngine and let the boat drift
towards the rock. The animals allowed us to come very close, then jumped in the
water, but did not seem to be very frightened. They headed right towards the
boat, swimming graciously and without any obvious effort. The largest of the
males roared to keep us off. I tried to imitate his cry without much success.
Yet, the male immediately roared back, and the lions surrounded the boat. They
dived, emerged, and held their heads above the water surface scrutinizing us
closely; for a moment I felt ill at ease. Living torpedoes cruised around and
below the boat, and all we could do was to envy how easily they swim and dive.
Having found out that we do not belong to their family the seals lost their
interest towards us and swam away. The Ushishir Islands for the first time were
described by the Cossack lieutenant Ivan Chernyi, the Russian explorer who
visited and mapped them as early as 1776. The aborigines knew the place from
ancient times. This was a sanctuary of the Ainu inhabiting the Kuril chain. The
site amazes with its strikingly ominous beauty when the fog lifts above the
hills, and in rare sunny hours, when the green slopes glitter in the sun and
flash with flowers, while the silver mirror of the bay reflects the blue sky.

On a misty day when four-hundred-meter rocks were hardly visible through the
milky mantle we put off the Taimyr in two boats and approached the narrow strait
to the Kraternaya Bay protected from the winds by solid rocks. The strait is
very narrow and shallow, impassable for ships. We skimmed along the water
surface, mist rainbow in the sky, with the din of the engine echoed in the
crater walls. Clouds of steam rising to the sky were seen ahead. We knew the
place from the books, but to hear and see it are very different things. Ivan
Chernyi wrote about it two century ago: "At night, young puffins flying toward
the sea over these springs often fall in the water, overcome by the heat and
sulfur fume. The poor birds stew there, and soon only their feathers are seen in
the water...the air is charged with sulfur, and fierce heat belches forth from
the land in loud bursts."

Axrusana syrkannuecknit yuacron.

Now we saw hot streams spurting from the ground, with fumaroles puffing with hot
gas, and sulphur precipitating on the rocks - that was what we saw. Once the
horrifying sacred ceremonies of the Ainu described by Chernyi were held here. A
candidate to the shamans had to spend three nights on a flooring above the hot
spring. Stupefied with toxic fumes he seemed to see shaggy worms coming from the
boiling water and crawling the body. They thought that a man who managed to
spend three nights at the place would be able to protect the tribe from any
evil. We were pressed for time and started to dive immediately. I was amazed at
what I saw. There was no seaweed here which was so common for the Kuril Islands.
The water was turbid, with visibility not more than two meters; in layers
floated some brown suspension and mass of zooplankton - comb jellies and
jellyfish. The bottom was covered with the reddish silt; large barnacles of
several centimeters height were seen near the shore. Thousands and thousands of
very small, black sea urchins overlaid the bottom one by one, and at some places
- in several layers. Deeper there appeared a host of strange brilliantly red
creatures with five forked tentacles and a flat foot stuck to the rocks. We knew
something about them; in his report Tarasov mentioned that Kraternaya Bay
abounds with sea anemones. I was surprised that the "sea anemones" had ten
forked tentacles - coelenterates are characterized by symmetry of the second,
fourth, six order, while a five-rayed structure is typical of echinodermata
exclusively. Later on I remembered the picture from a classifier; our "sea
anemone" turned out to be a sea cucumber of the Psolus family.

Among the sea cucumbers that in some places covered the bottom in thick carpet
we found sponges, sea stars, and worms that differed much from the ones that
inhabited the island's outward slopes. The very first impression - gloomy steep
rocky slope covered with red silt teemed with lots of alien creatures - was a
sharp contrast to everything we had seen during a month on the Kuril Islands.
Deeper down, the light grew dim, visibility dropped, and new animals appeared -
this time large, half a meter in diameter with nimbuses of tentacles. It was
hard to see anything, and the lighting of my camera flash for a moment exposed
the carpet of tentacles that contracted as I approached. Later on I remembered
that I saw a similar creature in the Barents Sea - that was the Cerianthus
polyp, a relative of sea anemones and corals. In 35 meters of water I was unable
to see the pointers of my depth gauge and decompression meter. It was useless to
stay here, and I ought to come closer to the surface to observe and photograph
the shallow water dwellers. Tarasov dived water at the opposite side of the bay.
Many of the living forms he saw were the same as where I dived, but he also
found soft bottom dwellers like polychaete marine worms with bright red
tentacles.

That was Tarasov's hour of triumph, a tremendous success of discovery. I was
also experiencing the same feeling, something like I felt ages ago in the
Antarctic, and never hoped to sense that again. We were pressed for time; only
three days were at our disposal, and we worked late hours.

Or6op mpo6 sosL.

TloxrorosKa & cilycKkam
y axrusHoro moza.

On the very first day coming back from the bay we discovered that the water
surface was colored red. The water layer resembling spilt red wine was very
thin. That reminded us of a red tide a phenomenon known from the prehistoric
times and particularly widespread in recent years in polluted marine areas. The
red tide is the object of thorough study, since it makes water unfit for
swimming and even for the technical uses; fish and sea creatures either die or
became contaminated. Tarasov remembered that he observed the same phenomenon ten
years ago when he was here for the first time. The red tide should be studied
thoroughly, since it is seldom observed in non-polluted areas. In the days to
follow Tarasov, Kamenev and Blinov studied the quantitative distribution of the
bottom population, and collected and marked the samples for their further
classification. That was a hard job not only because it demanded continuous
diving, but because everything collected had to be sorted, fixed and labeled. My
wife and I studied the hydrology and water chemistry. We took water samples to
determine the salinity, temperature, concentrations of nutrients, content of
chlorophylls and suspended organic and inorganic matter. The job we did was not
hard, but took much time.

«B sony, waGnt! >

On the very last day of our stay in the islands Serge
underwater hydrothermal vents.
meters gas bubbles emerged,
mats resembling the ones found in the land hot spring
hydrothermal vents.
carried out later at the Institute of Microbiology in
presupposition. We thought

phenomenon in shallow seawa
before that similar mats we
localities of fresh water,

ters,
re found in shallow waters
loaded by hydrogen sulfide

Late that afternoon when it was dead calm we found on
bubbles broke on the water surface.
large depth; I made an attempt to get to the bo
red, turbid and transparent water that darkened
gradually to pitch dark. I had no torch and had
of water, Tarasov armed with the only underwate
deepest and most powerful hydrothermal vents. A large
with bacterial mats. The sit
photographed by the Alvin submersible. We had no
discharged so we had to delay the exploration of
expedition. The ship headed for the north, doing
explore two more sites of volcanic activity, but
due to thick fog, and while diving at the second
severe storm.

g

time

Having discussed the results we sent the following radiogram to A.

"Shallow water hydrothermal vents sulfur bacterial ma
report Presidium Far

There were no microbiologists among us,

i Blinov discovered the

In many places at a depth from three to ten
surrounded by a sulfur bacteria cover,

with whitish
s and deep water

but the analyses
Moscow confirmed our

then that we were the first to discover the
and later on we learned that several years

off California in the
with drainage to the sea.

LA

more si

The hydrothermal ven
ttom thro
uickly
to ascend. La
torchlight we

reminded of the deepwater hydro

where gas

ts were at a rather

ugh layer after layer of
to dusky blue and

ter on in 20 meters
had found the
area was covered
thermal vents

ur last batteries had

bottom

(2)

,

the site till the next
her rou
we failed to find the first one
one we had to cancel due to a

tine work. We were to

Zhirmunski:
ts discovered request th

East Academy Tarasov Propp." We failed to answer

immediately the question how specific and original w
animals explored. In

the phenomena and

the areas with no volcanic activity we did not found many

of the animals discovered in the Kraternaya Bay.
they were not known before). In geological time scale
rapidly transient phenomenon, and it is possible that
communication with the sea is rather young. When erup
a bay would have to boil,

(Tha

t does not at all mean that
the volcanic activity is a
the crater lake’s

tions occurred the water in

Kraternaya caldera is unknown, although it is well

and all the population perished. Th
studied by the

xact age of

volcanologists.
period for th

new species to evolved. It seemed mor

It is supposed to be about ten thousand yea

rs old - a short

spread population of the bay are inhabitants of 200-1000 me

be rare species in their basic

science,

back to Korsakov, and we took
surprise nobody met us with ou
the weekend, and we had nothing

a

habitat that gained mass development in
specific conditions of the Kraternaya Bay. They may happen

passenger ship to Vladivostok. To our g
great discoveries at the sea terminal -
to do but to carry all our luggage on our backs.

likely that the most wide

ter depths. They may
the

to be new for

Since middle depth waters off the Kuril Islands are not fully explored
so as to regard as known all the species of the benthic pop

ulation. Taimyr came
reat

it was

USHISHIR, CRATER

The results of our expedition aroused interest at the Institute,
true evaluation of the data obtained,
Zhirmunski put aside everything to
Others were much more skeptic. Ou
mainly a negativ

Ss

t

1

t

a
oO

d
d
a
L

hydrothermal vents we

iE
Pp

hypothesis of what and whe
researching the determined
found, but methods we

Cc

Many details of the p

Vv
£

7c A;~T COWH YW

vasiv

or
ea cucumbers;

han the real one.

972, Vladimir Lukin,

heir peculiarity,
nd Oceanography
ELer,;

airies,
one thirt

At th
were very enthusiastic.

work done and accepted a decision to pursue it.
apply for a patent to the Patent Commit

posi
the animals belonged to
life forms were not found the results were of advertisement cha

oppos
have a l

cr nume

tion.

sam

The Resea

time th co

Lee.

Known genera,

ite views wer

but as for the

ook at the creatur

xpressed. A.

delivered.

rous "classical" hydrobiologists ass
Somebody somewhere had seen very similar
and since principally new

logists,

a senior researcher for the Institute,

as well as the turbidity and red water.
organized aboard the ship belonging to the Pacific Research Ins
(TINRO) .

al

they wer

thor himself.
kin and V. Tarasov,

u
u

he results obtained
articular attention

n years befor
It is not

ou
the
nor in
re no
in the K
to them.

Ce:

xpedition,

the aims and o

t yet discovered in 1972;

raternaya Bay,

to search, and

(e)

olcanic activity on
ollow.
rsenic and o
slands. Wate
riority for

o it. Charac

an hope to s
se to adopt
ttention.

re wo

The analyses proved that
thers were 100-1000
r pollution and its
the hydrobiology in
cosystem existed for centuries in a highly

objects.

the conten

recent yea

It regarded as inexpedient
It became known tha
wo
Kraternaya Bay for several hours. He took up a collection of animals,

sow
umed

racter rathe

microbiologists and divers
rch Council of the Institute p

raised highly the
to

t as early as
rked in the

and noted

Th

in this rega

ost,

Thus the discove

xpedition was
titute of Fishery

Its goal was to study the feed ration of the sea
and the Kraternaya Bay was of no interes
were shelved in the TINRO wh
about the data collected.

rd. The collections

and Lukin himself forgot utterly
Having heard about the new results he recovered his
but failed to find the collections.

ry could have been

but nobody noticed

tives of resea
even if L
nobody was likely

bjec

headed th

xpedi

rs. In this regard

polluted environment,

it, including the

matter of different scientific backgrounds of V.

rch. The deep water
ukin had published
to pay any

As for Tarasov he had already had a working

tion aimed at

It seemed unlikely that the object would be
rked out that allowed one to obtain the primary but
rrect outlook on the different sides of the phenomenon.

rocesses discovered in the Kraternaya and the impact of the
the biota were yet to be discovered in the expedi
ts of metals - iron,
times as high as in the waters off the K
control and prevention became the tas

tions to
manganese,
uril
k of top
the natural

and adjusted

terized by the diverse population and intensive processes
roduction and destruction of organic matte
tudy the biological and biochemical adaptations th
to the poison substances - that alone is a task worth of close

— 7

it is of a profound inte

of
res
rea

One
tures

sea Cc

The analyses of the materials proved that some common specimens in the

K
1
t
1

find a community wher

c
s
d

rate
dentify anda
he waters of

nvertebra

he USSR. Nowadays the discovery of som
tes is not an event of great significance; quite another

cies mak

ase
pecies fo
escriptive ma

new sp

rmation in marine environment arise,
rine hydrobiology.

th

others wer

rnaya like red sea cucumber and some of the mollusks are impossible to
re likely to be unknown to science;

never found in

cies between

new sp

up the basis of the biomass.
the fundamental theoretical questions like th

thing is to
In that
volution and

speed of

exceeding the bounda
In plankton a peculiar organism - infusoria

ries of the

such as Mezodinium rapidly developing with symbiotic algae in heavily polluted

Cc

oastal wa

ters is that basis.

The microbiologists discovered a grea

number of

sulfur bacteria and sea diatom algae in the samples taken from the mats. In
shallow water conditions, nature uses at maximum all the resources available -
light and chemical power of the materials brought with the volcanic waters.
Behind this and other particular facts the question arose: Is the community
discovered in Kraternaya a sole, unique phenomenon, or is it one of the many
forms resulting from the impact of volcanic activity on marine life? It is very
unlikely that a volcano bay very similar to the Kraternaya will ever be found
elsewhere in the Kuril Islands, or Japan, or Indonesia. Yet, some new, unknown
to science life forms in volcanic areas are sure to be discovered. A prominent
geochemist Konstantin Zelenov considers that more than 99 percent of volcanic

matter gets into the sea. Other experts regard it as an overestimation; yet one
cannot deny the fact that the number of underwater volcanoes far exceeds the
number of surface volcanoes - volcano chains stretch from Kamchatka to the
Antarctic.

It is possible that the deep water hydrothermal vents, shallow water communities
of the Kraternaya, and the microbe population of sea fumaroles discovered some
years ago off Sicily are the links in the same chain which can also include some
other phenomena. Biological communities of different kind were found by us in
New Zealand and New Guinea volcanic sites and by others in Santorini Caldera in

Aegean Sea in 1989 - 1991. Chemosynthesis is possible not only on the basis of
oxidation of reduced sulphur, iron, and manganese compounds, it can be caused by
oxidation of hydrogen, inorganic hydrocarbons like methane. Geologists
discovered methane crystalline hydrates that are preserved in the ocean bottom
sediments at high pressure and low temperature. Fuel reserves in them might
exceed all the world's oil reserves. The communities based on chemosynthesis
were found in areas where gas emanated from these crystalline hydrate layers.
These are the sources of energy supposed to be the basis of existence of some
bottom communities similar to the hydrothermal ones and discovered in the areas
where there is not any volcanic activity. The researchers for the Oceanological
Institute discovered and studied the vents with the use of a submersible in 800
meters of water off the Paramushir Island several hundred miles off the
Kraternaya Bay.

B kparepe.

A number of years before that, American microbiologists announced that in the
water and bottom sediments of areas of deep water hydrothermal vents they found
bacteria living at the temperature of 300 C. If the discovery proves true all
the fundamental outlooks of the biochemistry on the basic chemical substrata of
life will have to be revised; proteins and nucleic acids that remain stable at
such a high temperature are so far unknown to science. It is hard to imagine
that such a stability can be obtained. More than that, it will have to be
admitted that life processes take plac verywhere in the earth crust where
liquid water at a temperature of 400 C is found. That means that life itself
could engender quite differently from what they think of it nowadays, at much
more severe conditions and earlier in the process of Earth evolution, when the
temperature was very high.

5 SpERRN TTS ty)! ‘ ‘a |

a
aac my

Ha pa6ory.

Nevertheless, other experts ascertain that no discovery was made, and the
results published are but side effects of the experiments and have nothing to do
with life processes. For some time the authors remained silent, but later
confirmed their initial data. Later it was proved the results were experimental
errors only. A new object of research discovered off the Ushishir happened to be
most welcome. The tiny island in the Kuril chain is much easier to reach then
any deep water hydrothermal vents, and that makes it possible to do a large
amount of work. The Presidium of the Far Eastern Branch of the USSR Academy of
Science and the General Biology Department, Academy of Science, had heard our
reports, approved the results and took a decision to launch a large expedition
in 1986. The Academic Alexander Nesmeyanov with sixty researchers aboard was to
work in the Kuril Islands expedition for two months. The preparation for the new
expedition went into full swing. Everything seemed on its way, but in fact was
smooth only on paper. Before th xpedition the ship was put under a scheduled
repair that was delayed - neither the master Gulyaev, nor the crew, were

interested in the voyage to the home waters of Kuril Islands without any payment
in foreign currency. The ship was released from repair when all the terms were
long expired.

Tlepex caycKom.

Under the circumstances the chairman of the Presidium of the Far Eastern Branch
of the USSR AS academician Victor Ilyichev made a crucial decision. Just
recently built in Finland, the research ship Academic Oparin worked in the North

Pacific. V. Ilyichev ordered it to disembark in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski ten
researchers, and to take aboard ten participants from the failed Nesmeyanov
expedition and to work for ten days in the Ushishir. Naturally, ten people could
not carry out the work of sixty - three microbiologists in the same way as two
months’ work can hardly be done in ten days. The exploration was limited to the
Ushishir, and the study of all the other areas was postponed. Yet, that was
better than the three days we had at our disposal in 1985. Together with the
Oparin, the Berill - a small vessel for near shore expeditions with seven
hydrobiologists aboard - worked.

Mux poémoaorna — oro npexze scero Geckonewnmit Tpya (coTpyanux Hucruryta muxpo6uoazornu Banp Hamecapraes),

The Academic Oparin was designed and built for the Institute of Biorganic
Chemistry as a specialized research ship meant to carry out the basic task of
the Institute - to extract from marine organisms the biologically active
substances to produce medicines. It was equipped with everything necessary to

conduct research

,

and the laboratory equipment was valued at one third of the

price of the ship itself. The Oparin was provided with a diving complex to work

chemistry work.

the sea, in less

to 100 meters dept
rescue boat. One could hardly imagine a better ship for microbiology and

I

th, four utility boats, two speedy hydro-jet boats, anda

t was decided to conduct the hydrobiological study aboard the

Berill. After a short voyage from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski we were again in view
of the steep cliffs of Yankich Island. For an instant we saw the sun rise above

than twenty minutes the fog lifted and covered everything.

B aaGoparopun na Gopry «Onapunae (JI. H. Mponn).

In the very fi

in a narrow st
and low waves cre
into the passage.
Sergey Blinov tan

the helpless boat lost control and overturned.

sted at a

rst day we faced unforeseen problems.
and only at the shores did surge waves fall up and down.

shoal.

In 1985 the sea was calm,
Then our boats passed

rait without any problem. Now the swell came from the southwest,
Two boats with the hydrobiologists aboard went

The first one lead by Shevshenko passed, while the second with

gled its s

crew in the kelp;

the engine stopped and in a second
"I never thought I could swim

fast in high rubber boots" the diver told us after the rescu Shevshenko
returned, and helped the wet crew to get out on the shore, where they plunged
immediately in a hot spring bath, and tugged the overturned boat onto the bight.

Al

passed
reduced
raised
repair
reclama

aboard the
the damage

Thus the Oparin lost its basic mean to conduct diving. Then a violen
ut and raged for two days - heavy rain,
The situation s
and the experienced captain Gennadi Nozdrin did every

broke o
inaccessible.

though everything ended well,
expedition heads. After several hours of heated debates

through the strait that was not so horrifying. On
program the work was still done.

stern,
at sea,

the acciden

had a strong impact on the leading

But

the crane got broken.
and there was nothing to do bu
tion list of defects to be repaired at the shipya

med desperate,

the jet-propelled boat
that day though on a
ing when the boats were
t of the question to

to enter it ina

rd:

in the even
It was ou

t storm
fog and surf made the bay

but gradually the storm subsided,

thing he could to provide

the implementation of work. There was one more jet-propelled boat at the bow

deck;

peak capacities.
was resumed and w

Many
prima
A ten

types of res
ry productio

most experienced microbiologist Bair Namsargaev conducted his

without any inter
previous year exp
The amo
with the ones of

they allowed trac
diversi
data before its f
interes Befor

seismic
underwater fractu
in mind we dived

activity manifest
new region of und
considerably from
GO 30: Ce
were seen. The wa

study cond

The rescu
ent on con

earch like
n and plan

t camp was set up on the shore,

it was lifted and lowered with the help of a ca

boat was used to
tinuously for the

the study of wate

ruption fo
edition we

1985;
ing lin

the

inal t
our wor
ucted
res th
in all
ations
erwate
he p

the

necessary for the
found along the o
covered with mats
infusoria. The ma
polychaeta.

1,

ks betw
ty. Many new things were discovered in

r several days. Pr
re confirmed, and

unt of material collected and its diversity could by no

research became mo

rgo boom that worked at its
transport people and gear. The work
next eight days.

r chemis the determination of

try,

kton abundance demanded round the clock observation.
and the work was done day

and night. The
xperiments nearly
results of the
to be refuted.
means be compared
re complex and representative, and

actically all the
there was nothing

n separate p

reatment at the Institute's labora
k in 1985,
by volcanologists that

hot spring

areas of the bay;

were almost everywhere.
cr springs stretching fo
reviously found. Water he
it contained no hydrogen sulfide and no
ter was rich in nutrients,
growth of bottom algae. Nume
uter beach and on the spit at
but they were composed mainly
ts teemed with life,

Pp

and chemical wat

The study of th

regime of the whole bight is under the impact of the hydrothermal vents.

temperatur

and nume

henomena in their complexity and
eight days, and even the initial
tories was of enormous
to exist on land;
revealed that there are

s were known
very year

rough which hot water and gas can emanate. With that data

it turned out that volcanic

On the north slope we found a

r hundreds of meters that differed
re was cooler, ranging from 15
white mats of sulfur bacteria
rticularly phosphorus and silicon
rous gas vents and springs were
the bay entry. The bottom was

of diatoms and the protozoa -
us were Ceriantharia and

a

ro

er composition proved that the
On the

whole the results of the study testified to the fact that the volcanic impact is

more profound and diverse here than we expected it to be in our first
expedition. The mats covered the bottom for an area of tens and hundreds of
square meters. The ones under the rocks where it was dark or in deep water wer
composed of sulfur bacteria, great number of different microbes, protozoa and
small sea invertebrate. In shallow waters where the sunlight reached, we found
the algobacterial mats representing a composite structure of layers of
thiobacteria, photosynthetic bacteria containing chlorophyll, and diatoms. They
reminded partially of the mats of the shallow water firths of the Sivash in
Crimea, where sulphur compounds are released in sediments when organic matter is
decomposed, and partially the freshwater mats of the volcanic springs and lakes
found in the Uzon volcano caldera, Kamchatka. Depending on water temperature,
depth and water composition, different types of mats could be found and
compared. The microbiologists were excited at the discovery of such a diversity
of microbiological activity manifesting in a small area. Enormous initial data
was collected. Gradually it became clear that the rare diversity of bottom
communities of microorganisms discovered here raised the question on the
organization of a microbiological preserve here.

The new data confirmed high productivity rate in the bay, and the peculiarity of
the processes going on in the water depth. Confirmed was the idea that
Mezodinium infusoria played a crucial role in these processes. These infusoria
are single celled organisms with symbiotic microscopic goldish algae inside.
They are very tender; bumping into the wall of a vessel in their perpetual
motion they break, and the algae release into water. That is why they are hard
to grow, keep and study. Up to now it is unknown whether the goldish algae lived
only within the infusoria, or can live and reproduce in seawater like an
ordinary phytoplankton. Infusoria migrated constantly, raising to the surface in
daytime to consume the light for photosynthesis, and descending to 10-15 meters
of water at night where nitrogen and phosphorus compounds are abundant. The
number of infusoria in water was enormous at times and can reach millions a
milliliter. Alongside with Mezodinium infusoria discovered in the previous
expedition we found a new "giant" one, up to a millimeter long, and thus visible
to the naked eye. Several years before similar infusoria were found by American
specialists in a red tide off Alaska. The infusoria also contained a great
number of the goldish algae, but so far it was not determined whether they liv
inside them like symbionts, or the infusoria just feed on them. A great number
of animals were collected, and cooled or deep freezed to transport them to the
biologists and geneticists. The taxonomists received large collections where
every species was represented by tens and hundreds of specimens.

The materials and collections obtained were much richer than the ones collected
previously; their treatment demanded weeks, months, and years of work. It became
clear that the discovered phenomena were more complicated than we thought them
to be a year earlier. In 1985 we searched for shallow water hydrothermal vents
Similar to the deep water ones. We found them, but the phenomenon itself turned
out to be more complicated and diverse.

Ten days passed, and the Oparin set out for Vladivostok to head for another
expedition. The complex study of the volcanic manifestations alongside Kuril
island chain was delayed for the future; the questions raised during the
exploration of Kraternaya Bay exceeded the number of answers got - ten days of
field work are too little to resolve all the complicated tasks. Nobody can tell
for sure what the object of study in the future will be, as well as what devices
will be employed. It may be that the facts we discovered were of limited
importance and the study will take a different course. In a few years
expeditions equipped with submersibles will collect material on the scale of the
world ocean, and precise laboratory analyses will explain the details of the

processes. The initial euphoria might subside, as it has more than once, but the
results obtained will remain forever in the marine sciences.

CONCLUSION

The events, described in the book cover more than thirty years. The underwater
research began on a wave of enthusiasm, and great hopes were placed on them,
many of which failed to be realized. Cousteau's Homo Aquaticus that would have
man live and work in the ocean remained but a beautiful fantasy that hardly will
become a reality, at least in a predictable future. The way to the underwater
realm was laid, but the realm itself remained alien to human nature,
incompatible with its psychology and physiology, and the degree of this
incompatibility just becomes obvious. The discovery of the underwater world
failed to become the triumph of humanity.

Once underwater exploration seemed confined, occupying a modest place as an
auxiliary method of research, it seemed that laboratory work once and forever
reduced it to the background, and that the era of the ingenious, sensitive study
of the underwater realm when something new and mysterious could be found by
ordinary diving had passed. Yet, the reality turned out to be more complicated.
Twenty years later, when diving lost its novelty and became less appealing,
underwater research started to produce striking results. The creation of deep
water submersibles was a necessary precondition for the discovery of the
hydrothermal vents. Lots of other minor discoveries were made with the help of
scuba diving.

In the early 1970s the Americans paid attention to a rather widespread oceanic
jelly-like plankton. It was organisms consisting of water mostly, and they are
so fragile that are destroyed at a slightest touch - the catch would bring but
goo over everything. Such microscopic or small organisms are not in question;
many of these creatures extend their nets or tentacles a meter or more long like
trawl lines to haul in copepods. This plankton is nearly invisible in water
depth, and its study until now presents difficulties. Diving without support in
the water depth sometimes resembles work in a free space and demands special
skills and experience, while laboratory research of this plankton are not yet
invented. When plankton is studied, some basic outlooks on ocean productivity
are likely to be revised.

As an example I'd like to mention an underwater picture made by the Australians
Ron and Valerie Taylor. It depicts a transparent creature none of the specialist
would dare to classify. Probably, it is premature to give up the hope to
discover something principally new.

Yet, that piece of luck falls to a well trained researcher - the one who can
distinguish something new from the already known. Not less than knowledge a
scientist needs courage and audacity. Diving operations in the Antarctic were
conducted despite the fact that many of th xperts regarded it as impossible.
Everybody was sure that shallow water hydrothermal vents do not exist, but the
expedition headed by Tarasov discovered them at an already explored location.
What else and where does the sea keep in store for us?

Marine science in its structure, objectives and methods does not differ much
from the other sciences, and diving is but its small part. Yet, it is, like
marine expeditions on the whole, fraught with danger, hard physical labor, and
the necessity to make decisions that the life of other people depend on. In this
regard diving is close to mountaineering and the study of volcanoes.

Courage and audacity, the yearning to face risk and danger, to overcome
hardships and difficulties are characteristic of youth. Knowledge and experienc

are gained as years pass by. If the new generation of ocean explorers finds this
book of some interest and use, I will think that I wrote it not for nothing.